All These 
Things Added 



JAMES ALLEN 



ALL THESE THINGS ADDED 



ALL THESE 



THINGS ADDED 



"ENTERING THE KINGDOM" 

AND 

"THE HEAVENLY LIFE" 



JAMES ALLEN 



Author of "From Poverty to Power," "As A Man Thinketh, 

"Out From the Heart," "Byways of Blessedness," 

"Morning and Evening Thoughts," 

"Through the Gate of 

Good." 



COPYRIGHTED BY 

THE SHELDON UNIVERSITY PRESS 

LIBERTYVILLE, ILLINOIS 



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PREFACE 

TAMES ALLEN is one of those who has 
entered the Kingdom. His messages come to 
the world-weary as a benediction. In his thoughts 
they find that which brings them surcease from 
sorrow. He is a man who has the cosmic sense. 
He sees the working of the law. He realizes 
that the only sin is Ignorance and that the 
greatest virtue is Wisdom. He knows, too, 
that none of us is fit to judge others. We may 
only judge ourselves. James Allen does not 
seek to create a cult. All he aims to do is to 
live the Christ life in the busy world. This he 
does by rendering service. Allen is one of those 
who realize that the only true religion is the 
Religion of Service. He knows that the Carpen- 
ter was scientifically right when he said in 
the long ago: "The greatest among ye shall be 
your servant." And in this book of inspiration 
the author aims to teach men how they can 
best serve. 

THOMAS DREIER. 
Liberty ville, Illinois. 



CONTENTS 

PART I 

ENTERING THE KINGDOM 

The Soul's Great Need 9 

The Competitive Laws and the Law of Love 13 

Finding a Principle 41 

At Rest in the Kingdom and All Things Added 67 

PART II 

THE HEAVENLY LIFE 

The Divine Centre 83 

The Eternal Now 93 

The "Original Simplicity" . 99 

The Unveiling Wisdom . . . . 107 

The Might of Meekness 115 

The Righteous Man 125 

Perfect Love 129 

Perfect Freedom 137 

Greatness and Goodness 143 

Heaven in the Heart 153 



PART I 
ENTERING THE KINGDOM 



THE SOUL'S GREAT NEED 



I sought the world, but Peace was not there; 

I courted learning, but Truth was not revealed; 

I sojourned with philosophy, but my heart was sore 

with vanity. 
And I cried, Where is Peace to be found! 
And where is the hiding-place of Truth! 

Filius Lucis. 



TT^VERY human soul is in need. The 
*^* expression of that need varies with in- 
dividuals, but there is not one soul that does 
not feel it in some degree. It is a spiritual and 
causal need which takes the form, in souls 
of a particular development, of a deep 
and inexpressible hunger that the outward 
things of life, however abundantly possessed, 
never can satisfy. Yet the majority, im- 
perfect in knowledge and misled by appear- 
ances, seek to satisfy this hunger by striving 
for material possessions, believing that 
these will satisfy their need and bring 
them peace. 

Every soul consciously or unconsciously 
hungers for righteousness, and every soul 



10 ENTERING THE KINGDOM 

seeks to gratify that hunger in its own par- 
ticular way and in accordance with its own 
particular state of knowledge. The hun- 
ger is one, and the righteousness is one, but 
the pathways by which righteousness is 
sought are many. They who seek con- 
sciously are blessed, and shall shortly 
find the final and permanent satisfaction 
of soul that righteousness alone can give; 
for they have come into a knowledge of 
the true path. They who seek uncon- 
sciously, although for a time they may 
bathe in a sea of pleasure, are not blest; 
for they are carving out for themselves 
pathways of suffering over which they must 
walk with torn and wounded feet, and their 
hunger will increase, and the soul cry out 
for its lost heritage — the eternal heritage of 
righteousness. 

Not in any of the three worlds can the 
soul find lasting satisfaction, apart from the 
realization of righteousness, Bodied or dis- 
embodied, it is ceaselessly driven on by the 
discipline of suffering, until at last, in its 
extremity, it flies to its only refuge — the 



THE SOUL'S GREAT NEED 11 

refuge of righteousness — and finds the joy, 
satisfaction, and peace that it had so long 
and so vainly sought. 

The great need of the soul, then, is the 
need of this permanent principle, called 
righteousness, on which it may stand securely 
and restfully amid the tempests of earthly 
existence, bewildered no more, whereon it 
may build the mansion of a beautiful, 
peaceful, and perfect life. 

It is in the realization of this principle 
that the Kingdom of Heaven, the abiding 
home of the soul, resides, and this is the 
source and storehouse of every permanent 
blessing. Finding it, all is found; not 
finding it, all is lost. It is an attitude of 
mind, a state of consciousness, an ineffable 
knowledge, in which the struggle for exist- 
ence ceases and the soul finds itself at 
rest in the midst of plenty, where its great 
need, yea, its every need, is satisfied, with- 
out strife and without fear. Blessed are 
they who earnestly and intelligently seek it, 
for it is impossible that such should seek 
in vain. 



THE COMPETITIVE LAWS AND THE 
THE LAW OF LOVE 

When I am pure 

I shall have solved the mystery of life, 

I shall be sure 

When I am free from hatred, lust and strife, 

I am in Truth, and Truth abides in me. 

I shall be safe and sane and wholly free 

When I am pure. 

FT has been said that the laws of Nature 
* are cruel; it has likewise been said that 
they are kind. The one statement is the 
result of dwelling exclusively upon the 
fiercely competitive aspeot of Nature; the 
other results from viewing only the pro- 
tective and kindly aspect. In reality, natural 
laws are neither cruel nor kind; they are 
absolutely just — are, in fact, the outwork- 
ing of the indestructible principle of justice 
itself. 

The cruelty and consequent suffering 
so prevalent in Nature, is not inherent 
in the heart and substance of life; it is 
a passing phase of evolution, a painful 



14 ENTERING THE KINGDOM 

experience, that will ultimately ripen into 
the fruit of a more perfect knowledge, a 
dark night of ignorance and unrest, leading 
to a glorious morning of joy and peace. 

When a little child is burnt by matches, 
we do not ascribe cruelty to the working 
of the natural law by virtue of which the 
child was injured; we infer ignorance in 
the child, or carelessness on the part of its 
guardians. Even so, men and creatures are 
daily being consumed in the invisible flames 
of passion, succumbing to the ceaseless 
interplay of the fiery psychic forces that 
they do not understand, but which they 
shall at last learn how to control and use 
to their own protection, and not, as at 
present, foolishly employ to their own de- 
struction. 

To understand, control, and adjust 
harmoniously the invisible forces of its own 
soul is the ultimate destiny of every being 
and creature. Some men have accomplished 
this supreme and exalted purpose in the 
past; some have likewise succeeded in the 
present; until this is done, the place of 



COMPETITIVE LAWS AND LAW OF LOVE 15 

rest cannot be entered wherein one receives 
everything necessary for one's well-being 
and happiness, without striving and with 
freedom from pain. 

In an age like the present, when the chord 
of life is strained to its highest pitch in 
all civilized countries, when men by striv- 
ing each with each in every depart- 
ment of life for the vanities and material 
possessions of this perishable existence have 
developed competition to the utmost limit 
of action and endurance — in such an age the 
sublimest heights of knowledge are scaled, the 
supremest spiritual conquests are achieved; 
for when the soul is most tried its need is 
greatest, and where the need is great, great 
will be the effort. Where, also, tempta- 
tions are powerful, greater and more 
enduring will be the victory. Men love 
the competitive strife with their fellows 
while it promises and seems to bring them 
gain and happiness; but when the inevitable 
reaction comes and the cold steel of selfish 
strife that their own hands have forged 
enters their own hearts, then, and not till 

E.K.-2] 



16 ENTERING THE KINGDOM 

then, do they seek a better way. "Blessed 
are they that mourn" — that have come to 
the end of strife, and have found the pain 
and sorrow to which it leads; for unto them 
and unto them only, can open the door 
that leads to the Kingdom of Peace. 

In searching for this Kingdom, it is neces- 
sary fully to understand the nature and 
origin of all that prevents its realization: 
namely, the strife of nature, the competi- 
tive laws operative in human affairs, and 
the universal unrest, insecurity and fear 
that accompany these factors; without 
such an understanding there can be no 
sound comprehension of what constitutes 
the true and the false in life, and therefore 
no real spiritual advancement. Before the 
true can be apprehended and enjoyed, the 
false must be unveiled; before the real 
can be perceived as the real, the illusions 
that distort it must be dispersed; and 
before the limitless expanse of Truth can 
open out before us, the limited experience 
that is confined to the world of visible 
and superficial effects must be transcended- 



COMPETITIVE LAWS AND LAW OF LOVE 17 

Let, therefore, those of the readers who 
are thoughtful and earnest and are dili- 
gently seeking or are willing to seek for 
the basis of thought and conduct that 
shall simplify and harmonize the bewildering 
complexities and inequalities of life, walk 
step by step as the way is opened to the 
Kingdom; first descending into hell the 
world of strife and self-seeking — in order 
that, having comprehended its intricate 
ways, we may afterwards ascend into 
Heaven, into the world of Peace, and Love. 

It is the custom of some households dur- 
ing the hard frosts of winter to put out food 
for the birds; and it is a noticeable fact 
that these creatures when really starving 
live together most amicably, huddling 
together to keep one another warm 
and refraining from all strife. If a small 
quantity of food be given them they will 
eat it with comparative freedom from 
contention; but let a quantity of food 
more than sufficient for all be thrown 
to them, and fighting over the coveted 
provender at once ensues. Occasionally we 



18 ENTERING THE KINGDOM 

have put out a loaf of bread, whereupon 
the contention of the birds became 
fierce and prolonged, although there was 
more than all could possibly eat during 
several days. Some, having gorged them- 
selves until they could eat no more, would 
stand upon the loaf and hover round it, 
pecking fiercely at all newcomers, and 
endeavoring to prevent them from obtain- 
ing any of the food. Along with this 
contention there was noticeable a great 
fear. With each mouthful of food taken 
the birds looked about in nervous terror, 
apprehensive of losing their food. 

In this simple incident we have an illus- 
tration — crude, but true — of the basis and 
outworkings of competitive laws in Nature 
and in human affairs. It is not scarcity 
that produces competition, it is abundance; 
so that the richer and more luxurious 
a nation becomes, the keener and harder 
becomes the competition for securing 
the necessaries and luxuries of life. 
Let famine overtake a city or a nation, and 
at once compassion and sympathy take the 



COMPETITIVE LAWS AND LAW OF LOVE ]9 

place of competitive strife; and, in the 
blessedness of giving and receiving, men 
enjoy a foretaste of the heavenly bliss that 
the spiritually wise have found, * which 
all shall ultimately reach. 

The fact that abundance and not scarcity 
creates competition, should be held con- 
stantly in mind by the reader during the 
perusal of this book, as it throws a searching 
light not only on the statements herein con- 
tained, but upon every problem relating 
to social life and human conduct. More- 
over, if it be deeply and earnestly meditated 
upon, and its lessons applied to individual 
conduct, it will make plain the Way which 
leads to the Kingdom. 

Let us now search out the cause of this 
fact, in order that the evils connected with 
it may be transcended. 

Every phenomenon in social and national 
life — as in Nature — is an effect, and all these 
effects arise in a cause neither remote 
nor detached, but the immediate soul and 
life of the effect itself. As the seed is 
contained in the flower, and the flower 



20 ENTERING THE KINGDOM 

in the seed, so the relation of cause and 
effect is intimate and inseparable. An 
effect, also, is vivified and propagated by 
the life and impulse existing in the cause, 
not by any life inherent in itself. 

Looking out upon the world, we behold it 
as an arena of strife in which individuals, 
communities, and nations are constantly 
engaged in struggle, striving with each 
other for superiority and for the largest 
share of worldly possessions. We see, also, 
that the weaker fall out defeated, and that 
the strong — those equipped to pursue 
the combat with undiminished ardor 
— obtain the victory, and enter into pos- 
session. Along with this struggle we 
see the suffering inevitably connected 
with it : men and women, broken down 
with the weight of their responsibilities, 
failing in their efforts and losing all; 
families and communities broken up, and 
nations subdued and subordinated. We find 
seas of tears, telling of unspeakable anguish 
and grief; we see painful partings and 
unnatural deaths; and we know that this 



COMPETITIVE LAWS AND LAW OF LOVE 21 

life of strife is largely a life of sorrow when 
stripped of its surface appearances. 

Such, briefly sketched, are the phenomena 
connected with that aspect of human life 
with which we are now dealing; such are 
the effects as we see them; and they have 
one common cause that is found in the 
human heart itself. As all the multiform 
varieties of plant life have one common soil 
from which to draw their sustenance, 
by virtue of which they live and thrive, so 
all the varied activities of human life are 
rooted in, and draw their vitality from, 
one common source — the human heart — 
the spirit within. The cause of all suffer- 
ing and of all happiness resides in the inner 
activities of the heart and mind, not in the 
outer activities of human life, and every 
external agency is sustained by the life it 
derives from human conduct. 

The organized life-principle in man carves 
for itself outward channels along which it 
can pour its pent-up energies, makes for 
itself vehicles through which it can manifest 
its potency and reap its experience, and 



22 ENTERING THE KINGDOM 

as a result we have our religious, social, 
and political organizations. 

All visible manifestations of human 
life, then, are effects; and as such, although* 
they may possess a reflex action, they can 
never be causes, but must remain for ever 
what they are — dead effects, electrified into 
life by an enduring and profound cause. 

It is the custom of men to wander about 
in this world of effects, mistaking its 
illusions for realities and eternally transposing 
and readjusting these effects in order to 
arrive at a solution of human problems, 
instead of reaching down to the underlying 
cause which is at once the centre of unifica- 
tion and the basis upon which to build a 
peace-giving solution of human life. 

The strife of the world in all its forms, 
whether it be war, social or political quarrel- 
ing, sectarian hatred, private disputes, or 
commercial competiton, has its origin in 
a common cause, namely, individual 
selfishness. This term selfishness is employed 
in a far-reaching sense, including in it all 
forms of self-love and egotism — both in the 



COMPETITIVE LAWS AND LAW OF LOVE 23 

desire to pander to, and to preserve at all 
costs, the personality. 

This element of selfishness is the life and 
soul of competition and of the competitive 
laws. Apart from it they have no existence. 
But in the life of every individual in whose 
heart selfishness in any form is harbored 
these laws are brought into play, and the 
individual is subject to them. 

Innumerable economic systems have failed, 
and must fail, to extirpate the strife of the 
world. They are the outcome of the delusion 
that outward systems of government are the 
causes of that strife, whereas they are merely 
the visible and transient effects of the inward 
strife, the channels through which it must 
necessarily manifest itself. I am the way, 
the truth, the life. To destroy the chan- 
nel is, and must ever be, ineffectual; 
the inward energy will immediately make 
for itself another, and still another and 
another. Strife cannot cease and the com- 
petitive laws must prevail so long as selfish- 
ness is fostered in the heart. All reforms 
fail where this element is ignored or 



24 ENTERING THE KINGDOM 

unaccounted for; all reforms succeed 
where it is recognized, and steps are taken 
for its removal. 

Selfishness, then, is the root cause of 
competition, the foundation on which all 
competitive systems rest, and the sustaining 
source of the competitive laws. It will 
thus be seen that all competitive systems, 
all the visible activities of the struggle of 
man with man, are the leaves and branches 
of a tree that overspreads the whole earth, 
the root of that tree being individual 
selfishness,, and the ripened fruits pain and 
sorrow. This tree cannot be destroyed 
by merely lopping off its branches; to do 
this effectually the root must be destroyed. 

To introduce measures in the form of 
changed external conditions is merely lop- 
ping off the branches; and as the cutting 
away of certain branches of a tree gives 
added vigor to those remaining, even 
so the very means taken to curtail compe- 
titive strife, when those means deal entirely 
with its outward effects, will only add 
strength and vigor to the tree whose 



COMPETITIVE LAWS AND LAW OF LOVE 25 

roots are all the time being fostered 
and encouraged in the human heart. The 
most that even legislation can do is to 
prune the branches, and so prevent the 
tree from altogether running wild. 

Great efforts have been put forward to 
found a city that shall be a veritable Eden 
planted in the midst of orchards, whose inhabi- 
tants shall live in comfort and comparative 
repose. Beautiful and laudable are all such 
efforts when prompted by divine love. But such 
a city cannot exist, or cannot long remain 
the Eden it aims to be in its outward form, 
unless the majority of its inhabitants have sub- 
dued and conquered the inward selfishness. 
Even one form of selfishness, namely, self- 
indulgence, if fostered by its inhabitants, will 
completely undermine that city, levelling its 
orchards to the ground, converting its 
beautiful dwellings into competitive marts 
or obnoxious centres for the personal 
gratification of appetite, and some of its 
public buildings into institutions for the 
maintenance of order; and upon its public 
spaces will rise gaols, asylums, and orphan- 



26 ENTERING THE KINGDOM 

ages; for where the spirit of self-indulgence 
is, the means for its gratification will be 
immediately adopted, without considering 
the good of others or of the community — 
selfishness is J blind — and the fruits of that 
gratification will be rapidly reaped. 

The building of pleasant houses and the 
planting of beautiful orchards and gardens 
can never, of itself, constitute an ideal 
city unless its inhabitants have learned 
that self-sacrifice is better than self-protection, 
and have first established in their own hearts 
a city of divine love. When a sufficient 
number of men and women have done this, 
the ideal city will appear, and flourish, and 
prosper, and great will be its peace, for 
out of the heart are the issues of life. 

Having found that selfishness is the root 
cause of all competition and strife the 
question naturally arises how this 
cause shall be dealt with, for it naturally 
follows that a cause being destroyed, all 
its effects cease; a cause being propagated, 
all its effects, however they may be modified 
from without, must continue. Every man 



COMPETITIVE LAWS AND LAW OF LOVE 27 

who has thought deeply upon the 
problem of life, and meditated sympa- 
thetically upon the sufferings of mankind, 
has seen that selfishness is at the root of 
all sorrow — in fact, this is one of the truths 
first apprehended by the thoughtful 
mind. Along with this perception there 
has been born within him a longing 
to formulate some method by which such 
selfishness might be overcome. The first 
impulse of such a man is to endeavor to 
frame some outward law, or introduce 
some new social arrangements or regula- 
tions, that shall put a check on the sel- 
fishness of others. The second tendency 
of his mind will be to feel his utter helpless- 
ness before the great iron wall of selfishness 
by which he is confronted. Both these 
attitudes of mind are the result of an 
incomplete knowledge of what constitutes 
selfishness. This partial knowledge dom- 
inates him because, although he has over- 
come the grosser forms of selfishness in 
himself, and is so far noble, he is yet selfish 
in other and more remote and subtle 



28 ENTERING THE KINGDOM 

directions. This feeling of helplessness 
is the prelude to one of two conditions: the 
man will either give up in despair and 
again sink himself in the selfishness of 
the world, or he will search and meditate 
until he finds another way out of the 
difficulty. That way he will find. Look- 
ing more and more deeply into the things 
of life; reflecting, meditating, examin- 
ing, and analyzing; grappling every diffi- 
culty and problem with intensity of 
thought, and developing day by day a 
profounder love of Truth — by these means 
his heart will grow and his comprehension 
expand, until at last he realizes that 
the way to destroy selfishness is not to try 
to destroy one form of it in other people, 
but to destroy it utterly, root and branch, 
in himself. 

The perception of this truth constitutes 
spiritual illumination, and when once it 
is awakened in the mind, the strait and 
narrow way is revealed, and the shining 
Gates of the Kingdom already loom in 
the distance. Then does a man apply 



COMPETITIVE LAWS AND LAW OF LOVE 29 

to himself — not to others — these words: 
"And why beholdest thou the mote that 
is in thy brother's eye, but considerest 
not the beam that is in thine own eye ? 
Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let 
me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, 
behold, a beam is in thine own eye ? Thou 
hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of 
thine own eye; and then shalt thou see 
clearly to cast out the mote out of thy 
brother's eye." When a man can apply 
these words to himself and act upon them, 
judging himself mercilessly but judging 
none other, then will he rise above and render 
of no effect the laws of competition, and will 
find the higher Law of Love, subjecting him- 
self to which every evil thing will flee from 
him, and the joys and blessings that the selfish 
vainly seek will constantly wait upon him. Not 
only this, having lifted himself, he will lift the 
world. By his example many will see the 
Way, and will walk it; and the powers of light 
shall be the stronger for his having lived. 

It will here be asked: "But will not a 
man who has risen above his selfishness, 



mm 

30 ENTERING THE KINGDOM 

and therefore above the competitive strife, 
suffer through the selfishness and com- 
petition of those around him ? Will he 
not, after all the trouble he has taken 
to purify himself, suffer at the hands of 
the impure ?" No; he will not. The 
equity of the Divine Order is perfect 
and cannot be subverted, so that it is im- 
possible for one who has overcome selfish- 
ness to be subject to the laws that 
are brought into operation by the action 
of selfishness: in other words, each indi- 
vidual suffers by virtue of his own selfishness. 
It is true that all the selfish come under 
the operation of the competitive laws and 
suffer collectively, each acting more or 
less as the instrument by which the suffering 
of others is brought about, and that this makes 
it appear on the surface as though men 
suffered for the sins of others rather than 
their own. But the truth is that in a uni- 
verse the very basis of which is harmony, 
which can only be sustained by the 
perfect adjustment of all its parts, each 
unit receives its own measure of adjustment, 



COMPETITIVE LAWS AND LAW OF LOVE 31 

and suffers by and of itself. Each man 
comes under the laws of his own being, 
never under those of another. True, he 
will suffer like another and even through 
the instrumentality of another, if he elects 
to live under the same conditions as that 
other. But if he chooses to desert those 
conditions and live under another and 
higher set of conditions of which that other 
is ignorant, he will cease to come under 
or be affected by the lower laws. 

Let us now go back to the symbol of the 
tree, and carry the analogy a little further. 
Just as the leaves and the branches are 
sustained by the roots, so the roots derive 
their nourishment from the soil, groping in 
the darkness, yet with assured instinct, for the 
sustenance which the tree demands. In like 
manner, selfishness, the root of the tree of evil 
and of suffering, derives its nourishment from 
the dark soil of ignorance. In this it thrives; 
upon this it stands and flourishes. By ignor- 
ance is meant something vastly different from 
lack of learning; and the sense in which it is 
used will be made plain. 

E.K.-3] 



32 ENTERING THE KINGDOM 

Selfishness gropes in the dark. It has 
no real knowledge; by its very nature it 
is cut off from the source of enlighten- 
ment; it is a blind impulse, knowing nothing; 
obeying no law, for it knows none; and is 
thereby forcibly bound to those competitive 
laws by virtue of which suffering is inflicted 
in order that harmony may be maintained. 
We live in a world, a universe, abounding 
in all good things. So great is the 
abundance of spiritual, mental, and material 
blessings that every man and woman on 
this globe could not only be provided with 
every necessary good, but could live in the 
midst of abounding plenty and still leave 
much to spare. Yet in spite of this what 
a spectacle of ignorance do we behold! 
We see on one hand millions of men 
and women chained to a ceaseless slavery, 
interminably toiling in order to obtain a 
poor and scanty meal and a garment to 
cover their nakedness; and on the other 
hand we see thousands who already have 
more than they require and can well manage 
depriving themselves of all the blessings 



COMPETITIVE LAWS AND LAW OF LOVE 33 

of a true life and of the vast opportunities 
that their possessions place within their 
reach, in order to accumulate more of 
those material things for which they have 
no legitimate use. Surely men and women 
have no more wisdom than the fowls and the 
beasts that fight over the possession of 
more than they can all well use, which 
all could enjoy in peace. 

Such a condition of things can only 
obtain in a state of ignorance deep and 
dark; so dark and dense as to be utterly 
impenetrable save to the unselfish eye of 
wisdom and truth. In the midst of all this 
striving after place and food and rainment, 
there works unseen, yet potent and unerring, 
the Overruling Law of Justice, meting out to 
every individual his own quota of merit and 
demerit. It is impartial; it bestows no 
favors; it inflicts no unearned punishments: 

"It knows not wrath nor pardon; utter-true 

Its measures mete, its faultless balance weighs; 
Times are as nought, to-morrow it will judge, 
Or after many days." 

The rich and the poor alike suffer for 
their own selfishness; and none escape. 



34 ENTERING THE KINGDOM 

The rich have their particular sufferings 
as well as the poor. Moreover, the rich 
are continually losing their riches; the poor 
are continually acquiring them. The poor 
man of to-day is the rich man of to-morrow, 
and vice versa. There is no stability, no 
security, in hell, and only brief and occasional 
periods of respite from suffering in some 
form or other. Fear, also, follows men 
like a great shadow, for the man who 
obtains and holds by selfish force will 
be haunted by a feeling of insecurity, 
continually fearing loss; while the poor 
man, who is selfishly seeking or covet- 
ing material riches, will be harrassed by 
the fear of destitution. One and all 
who live in this under-world of strife are 
overshadowed by one great fear — the fear 
of death. 

Surrounded by the darkness of ignorance, 
and having no knowledge of those eternal 
and life-sustaining Principles out of which 
all things proceed, men labor under the 
delusion that the most important and 
essential things in life are food and cloth- 



COMPETITIVE LAWS AND LAW OF LOVE 35 

ing and that their first duty is to strive 
to obtain these, believing that these out- 
ward things are the source and cause of 
all comfort and happiness. It is the blind 
animal instinct of self-preservation — the 
preservation of the body and personality — 
by virtue of which each man opposes him- 
self to other men in order to get a living 
or secure a competency, believing that 
if he does not keep an incessant watch 
on other men and constantly renew the 
struggle, they will ultimately take the 
bread out of his mouth. 

Out of this initial delusion comes all 
the train of delusions with their attend- 
ant sufferings that obtains in the world 
around us. Food and clothing are not the 
essential things of life; not the causes of 
happiness. They are non-essentials, effects, 
and, as such, proceed by a process of natural 
law from the essentials, the underlying 
cause. The essential things in life are the 
enduring elements in character: integrity, 
faith, righteousness, self-sacrifice, compas- 
sion, love; and out of these all good things 



36 ENTERING THE KINGDOM 

proceed. Food, clothing, and money are 
inanimate effects; there is in them no life, no 
power except that with which we invest 
them. They are without vice and virtue 
and can neither bless nor harm. Even the 
body which men believe to be themselves, 
to which they pander, and which they long 
to keep, is constantly being yielded up to 
the dust, it is ever changing. But the higher 
elements of character are life itself; and to 
practise these, to trust them, and to live 
entirely in them, constitute the Kingdom 
of Heaven. 

The man who says, "I will first of all 
earn a competence and secure a good posi- 
tion in life, and then give my mind to 
these higher things," does not understand 
these higher things and does not believe them 
to be higher; if he did, it would not 
be possible for him to neglect them. He 
believes the material excrescences of life 
to be the higher, and therefore seeks 
them first. He believes money, clothing, 
and position to be of vast and essential 
importance, righteousness and truth to be 



COMPETITIVE LAWS AND LAW OF LOVE 37 

at best secondary; for a man sacrifices 
what he believes to be less to what he 
believes to be greater. Immediately 
a man realizes that righteousness is of more 
importance than the getting of food and 
clothing, he ceases to strive after the latter, 
and begins to live for the former. It is 
here where we come to the dividing line 
between the two Kingdoms: hell and 
Heaven. 

Once a man perceives the beauty and 
enduring reality of righteousness, his whole 
attitude of mind toward himself and others 
and the things within and around him 
changes. The love of personal existence 
gradually loses hold on him; the instinct 
of self-preservation begins to fade, and the 
practice of self-renunciation takes its place. 
For the sacrifice of others or of the happi- 
ness of others to his own good, he substi- 
tutes the sacrifice of self and of his own 
happiness for the good of others. 
Thus rising above self, he rises above the 
competitive strife that is the outcome 
of self and above the competitive laws 



38 ENTERING THE KINGDOM 

that operate only in the region of self 
and for the regulation of its blind im- 
pulses. He is like a man who has climbed 
a mountain and thereby risen above all 
the disturbing currents in the valleys below 
him. The clouds pour down their rain, 
the thunders roll and the lightnings flash, 
the fogs obscure, and the hurricanes uproot 
and destroy, but they cannot reach him on 
the calm heights where he stands, there 
to dwell in continual sunshine and peace. 

In the life of such a man the lower laws 
cease to operate, and he now comes under 
the protection of a higher Law — namely, 
the Law of Love; and in accordance with 
his faithfulness and obedience to this Law 
will all that is necessary for his well-being 
come to him at the time he requires 
it. The idea of gaining a position in the 
world cannot enter his mind, and the 
external necessities of life, such as money, 
food and clothing, he scarcely ever thinks 
about. Subjecting himself for the good 
of others, performing all his duties scrupu- 
lously and without thinking of reward, and 



COMPETITIVE LAW AND LAW OF LOVE 39 

living day by day in the discipline of right- 
eousness, all other things follow at the 
right time and in the right order. Just as 
the suffering and strife inhere in and 
spring from their root-cause, selfishness, 
so blessedness and peace inhere in and 
spring from their root-cause, righteousness. 
It is a full and all-embracing blessed- 
ness, complete and perfect in every depart- 
ment of life; for what is morally and 
spiritually right is physically and materially 
right. 

Such a man is free, for he is freed from 
all anxiety, worry, fear, despondency, all 
the mental disturbances that derive their 
vitality from the elements of self; he 
lives in constant joy and peace, and this 
while living in the very midst of the competi- 
tive strife of the world. Yet, though walking 
in the midst of hell, its flames fall back before 
and around him, so that not one hair of his 
head can be singed. Though he walks in 
the midst of the lions of selfish force, for 
him their jaws are closed and their ferocity 
subdued. Though on every hand men 



40 ENTERING THE KINGDOM 

are falling around him in the fierce battle 
of life, he falls not, neither is he dismayed : 
no deadly bullet can reach him, no 
poisoned shaft can pierce the impenetrable 
armor of his righteousness. Having lost 
the little, personal, self-seeking life of suffer- 
ing, fear, anxiety, and want, he has found 
the illimitable, glorious, self-perfecting life 
of joy and peace and plenty. "Therefore 
take no thought saying, What shall we 
eat ? or, What shall we drink ? or, Where- 
withal shall we be clothed ? . . . For 
your heavenly Father knoweth ye have need 
of all these things. But seek ye first the 
Kingdom of God, and His Righteousness; 
and all these things shall be added unto 
you. 



THE FINDING OF A PRINCIPLE 



Be still, my soul, and know that peace is thine; 
Be steadfast, heart, and know that strength divine 
Belongs to thee; cease from thy turmoil, mind, 
And thou the everlasting rest shalt find. 



T TOW then shall a man reach the Kingdom ? 
* *~ By what process shall he find the light 
that alone can disperse his darkness ? In 
what way can he overcome the inward 
selfishness which is strong, and deeply 
rooted ? 

A man will reach the Kingdom by purify- 
ing himself; and he can do this only by 
pursuing a process of self-examination and 
self-analysis. Selfishness must be dis- 
covered and understood before it can be 
removed. It is powerless to remove itself, 
neither will it pass away of itself. As dark- 
ness ceases only when light is introduced; 
so ignorance can only be dispersed by 
Knowledge; selfishness by Love. Seeing 
that in selfishness there is no security, no 
stability, no peace, the whole process of 



42 ENTERING THE KINGDOM 

seeking the Kingdom resolves itself into a 
search for a Principle: a divine and perma- 
nent Principle on which a man can stand 
secure, freed from himself — from the 
personal element, and from the tyranny 
and slavery which that personal self exacts 
and demands. A man must first of all 
be willing to lose his self-seeking self 
before he can find his divine self. He 
must realize that selfishness is not worth 
clinging to, that it is a master altogether 
unworthy of his service, and that divine 
Goodness alone is worthy to be enthroned 
in his heart as the supreme master of his 
life. This means that he must have faith; 
for without this equipment there can be 
neither progress nor achievement. He must 
believe in the desirability of purity, in the 
supremacy of righteousness, in the sustaining 
power of integrity; he must ever hold before 
him the Ideal and Perfect Goodness, and 
strive for its achievement with ever-renewed 
effort and unflagging zeal. This faith must 
be nurtured and its development encouraged. 
It must be carefully trimmed and fed and 



THE FINDING OF A PRINCIPLE 43 

kept burning like a lamp in the heart, for 
without its radiating light no way will be 
seen in the darkness; one will find no path- 
way out of self. As the flame increases 
and burns with a steadier light, energy, 
resolution, and self-reliance will come to 
man's aid, and with each step, his progress 
be accelerated until at last the Light of 
Knowledge will begin to take the place of 
the lamp of faith, and the darkness dis- 
appear before its searching splendor. Into 
his spiritual ken will come the Principles of 
the divine Life, and as he approaches them 
their incomparable beauty and majestic 
symmetry will astonish his vision and glad- 
den his heart with a gladness hitherto 
unknown. 

Along this pathway of self-control and 
self-purification — for such it is — every soul 
must travel on its way to the Kingdom. So 
narrow is this way and so overgrown with 
the weeds of selfishness is its entrance, that 
it is difficult to find; and, being found, it 
cannot be retained except by daily medita- 
tion. Without this the spiritual energies 



44 ENTERING THE KINGDOM 

grow weaker, and the man loses the strength 
necessary to go on. As the body is 
sustained and invigorated by material food, 
so is the spirit strengthened and renewed 
by its own food: meditation upon spiritual 
things. 

He, then, who earnestly resolves to find 
the Kingdom will commence to meditate, 
and rigidly to examine his heart and mind 
and life in the light of the Supreme Per- 
fection that is the goal of his attainment. 
On his way to that goal, he must pass 
through the three Gateways of Surrender. The 
first is the Surrender of Desire; the second 
the Surrender of Opinion; and the third 
the Surrender of Self. Entering into 
meditation, he will commence to examine 
his desires, tracing them out in his mind, 
and following up their effects in his life 
and upon his character; and he will quickly 
perceive that without the renunciation of 
desire a man remains a slave both to him- 
self and to his surroundings and circum- 
stances. Having discovered this, the first 
Gate, that of the Surrender of Desire, is 



THE FINDING OF A PRINCIPLE 45 

entered. Passing through this Gate, he 
adopts a process of self-discipline which 
is the first step in the purification of the 
soul. Hitherto he has lived as a slavish 
beast; eating, drinking, sleeping, and pur- 
suing enjoyment at the beck and call of his 
lower impulses; blindly following and grati- 
fying his inclinations without method, not 
questioning his conduct, and having no fixed 
centre from which to regulate his character 
and his life. Now, however, he begins to live 
as a man; he curbs his inclinations, controls 
his passions, and steadies his mind in the 
practice of virtue. He ceases to pursue 
enjoyment, but follows the dictates of his 
reason, and regulates his conduct in accord- 
ance with the demands of an ideal. With 
the introduction of this regulating factor 
in his life, he perceives at once that certain 
habits must be abandoned. He begins to 
select his food, and to have his meals at 
stated periods, no longer eating at any time 
that the sight of food tempts his inclination. 
He reduces the number of meals each day, 
and also the quantity of food eaten. He 



46 ENTERING THE KINGDOM 

no longer goes to bed, by day or night, to 
indulge in pleasurable indolence, but rather 
to give his body the rest it needs; he therefore 
regulates his hours of sleep, rising early, 
and never encouraging the animal desire to 
indulge in dreamy indolence after waking. 
Such food and drink as is particularly asso- 
ciated with gluttony, cruelty, and animal- 
ism he will dispense with altogether, select- 
ing the mild and refreshing sustenance 
which Nature provides in such rich profusion. 
These preliminary steps will be at once 
adopted; and as the path of self-govern- 
ment and self-examination is pursued, a 
clearer and ever clearer perception of the 
nature, meaning, and effects of desire will 
be developed, until it is seen that the 
mere regulation of one's desires is altogether 
inadequate and insufficient, and that the 
desires themselves must be abandoned, must 
be allowed to fall out of the mind and to 
have no part in the character and life. It 
is at this point that the soul of the seeker 
enters the dark Valley of Temptation; 
for these desires will not die without a 



THE FINDING OF A PRINCIPLE 47 

struggle and many a fierce effort to 
re-assert the power and authority with 
which they have hitherto been invested. 
Here the lamp of faith must be con- 
stantly fed and assiduously trimmed, for all 
the light it can radiate will be required 
to guide and encourage the traveller 
in the dense gloom of this dark Valley. 
At first his desires, like so many wild beasts, 
will clamor loudly for gratification. Fail- 
ing in that, they will then tempt him to 
struggle with them that they may over- 
throw him. And this last temptation is 
greater and more difficult to overcome 
than the first, for the desires will not be 
stilled until they are utterly ignored; until 
they are left unheeded, unconditionally 
abandoned, and allowed to perish for want 
of food. In passing through this Valley, 
the searcher will develop certain powers 
necessary to his further advancement; 
and these powers are: self-control, self- 
reliance, fearlessness, and independence of 
thought. Here also he will have to pass 
through ridicule and mockery and false 

E.K.-4] 



48 ENTERING THE KINGDOM 

accusation; so much so, that some of his 
best friends, yea, even those whom he 
most unselfishly loves, will accuse him of 
folly and inconsistency, and will do all 
they can to argue him back to the life of 
animal indulgence, self-seeking, and petty 
personal strife. Nearly everybody around 
him will suddenly discover that they 
know his duty better than he knows it 
himself, and, knowing no other and higher 
life than their own of mingled excitement 
and suffering, they will take great pains 
to win him back to it, imagining, in their 
ignorance, that he is losing much pleas- 
ure and happiness, and gaining nothing 
in return. At first this attitude of others 
toward him will arouse in him acute suffer- 
ing, but he will rapidly discover that this 
suffering is caused by his own vanity and 
selfishness and the result of his own 
subtle desire to be appreciated, admired, 
and thought well of; as soon as this 
knowledge is arrived at, he will rise into a 
higher state of consciousness, where these 
things can no longer reach him and inflict 



THE FINDING OF A PRINCIPLE 49 

pain. It is here that he will begin to 
stand firm, and to wield with effect the 
powers of mind already mentioned. Let 
him therefore press on courageously, heed- 
ing neither the revilings of his friends 
without nor the clamorings of his enemies 
within; aspiring, searching, striving; looking 
ever toward his Ideal with eyes of holy 
love; day by day ridding his mind of selfish 
motive, his heart of impure desire; stumbling 
sometimes, sometimes falling, but ever travel- 
ling onward and rising higher: and, as he re- 
cords each night in the silence of his own heart 
the journey of the day, let him not despair 
if only each day, in spite of all its failures 
and falls, record some holy battle fought, 
though lost, some silent victory attempted, 
though unachieved. The loss of to-day 
will add to the gain of to-morrow for him 
whose mind is set on the conquest of self. 
Passing along the Valley, he will at last 
come to the Fields of Sorrow and Loneli- 
ness. His desires, having received at his 
hands neither encouragement nor suste- 
nance, have grown weak, and are now 



50 ENTERING THE KINGDOM 

falling away and perishing. He is now 
climbing out of the Valley, and the darkness 
is less dense; but now he realizes, for the 
first time, that he is alone. He is like a 
man standing at the foot of a great 
mountain, and it is night. Above 
him towers the lofty peak, beyond which 
shine the everlasting stars; a short distance 
below him are the glaring lights of the 
city he has left, and from it there come 
up to him the noises of its inhabitants 
— a confused mingling of shouts, screams, 
laughter, rumblings of traffic, and the strains 
of music. He thinks of his friends, all of 
whom are in the city, pursuing their own 
particular pleasures; and he is alone upon 
the mountain. That city is the City of 
Desire and Pleasure, the mountain is the 
Mountain of Renunciation, and the climber 
now knows that he has left the world, 
that henceforth for him its excitements and 
strifes are lifeless things, and can tempt 
him no more. Resting awhile in this lonely 
place, he will taste of sorrow and learn its 
secret; harshness and hatred will pass from 



THE FINDING OF A PRINCIPLE 51 

him; his heart will grow soft, and the first 
faint broodings of the divine compassion 
that shall afterwards absorb his whole 
being will overshadow and inspire him. 
He will begin to feel with every living 
thing in its strivings and sufferings; 
gradually, as this lesson is learned, his 
own sorrow and loneliness will be forgotten 
and will pass away in his great calm love 
for others. 

Here, also, he will begin to perceive and 
understand the working of the hidden 
laws that govern the destinies of indi- 
viduals and of nations. Having risen above 
the lower region of strife and selfishness 
within himself, he can now look calmly 
down upon it in others and in the world, 
to analyze and comprehend it, and he will 
see how selfish striving is at the root of all 
the world's suffering. His whole attitude to- 
ward others and toward the world now under- 
goes complete change, and compassion 
and love take the place of self-seeking 
and self-protection in his mind; as a 
result of this, the world alters in its 



52 ENTERING THE KINGDOM 

attitude toward him. At this juncture 
he perceives the folly of competition, and 
ceasing from striving to overtop and get 
the better of others he begins to encourage 
them, both with unselfish thoughts and, 
when necessary, with loving acts; this 
he does even to those who selfishly com- 
pete with him, no longer defending him- 
self against them. As a direct result of 
this, his worldly affairs begin to prosper as 
never before; many of the friends who at 
first mocked him commence to respect, 
and even to love him; and he suddenly 
awakens to the fact that he is coming in 
contact with people of a distinctly unworldly 
and noble type, of whose existence he had 
no knowledge. From many parts and from 
long distances these people will come to him 
to minister to him and that he may minister 
to them, spiritual fellowship and loving 
brotherhood will become potent factors in 
his life, and so he will pass beyond the 
Fields of Sorrow and Loneliness. 

The lower competitive laws have now 
ceased to operate in his life, and their 



THE FINDING OF A PRINCIPLE 53 

results, which are failure, disaster, exposure, 
and destitution, can no longer enter into 
and form part of his experience; this 
not merely because he has risen above the 
lower forms of selfishness in himself, but 
because also, in so rising, he has developed 
certain powers of mind by which he is 
enabled to direct and govern his affairs 
with a more powerful and masterly hand. 

He, however, has not yet travelled far, 
and unless he exercise constant watchful- 
ness he may at any time fall back into the 
lower world of darkness and strife, revivify- 
ing its empty pleasures, and galvanizing 
back to life its dead desires. Especially 
is there this danger when he reaches the 
greatest temptation through which man is 
called to pass — the temptation of doubt. 
Before reaching, or even perceiving, the 
second Gate, that of Surrender of Opinion, 
the pilgrim will come upon a great soul- 
desert, the Desert of Doubt. Here for 
a time he will wander around, while despon- 
dency, indecision, and uncertainty, a melan- 
choly brood, surround him like a cloud, 



54 ENTERING THE KINGDOM 

hiding from his view the way imme- 
diately in front of him. A new and strange 
fear, too, will overtake him, and he 
will begin to question the wisdom of 
the course he is pursuing. Again the 
allurements of the world will be presented 
to him, dressed in their most attractive 
garb, and the drowning din and stimulating 
excitement of worldly battle will once more 
assume a desirable aspect. "After all, am 
I right?" "What gain is there in this?'' 
"Does not life itself consist of pleasure and 
excitement and battle, and in giving these 
up am I not giving up all?" "Am I not 
sacrificing the very substance of life for a 
meaningless shadow?" "May it not be 
that I, after all, am a poor deluded person, 
and that all those around me who live the 
life of the senses and stand upon its solid, 
sure, and easily procured enjoyments are 
wiser than I ?" By such dark doubtings 
and questionings will he here be tempted 
and troubled, until these very doubts 
drive him to a deeper searching into the 
intricacies of life, and arouse within him 



THE FINDING OF A PRINCIPLE 55 

the feeling of necessity for some permanent 
Principle upon which to stand and take 
refuge. He will, therefore, while wander- 
ing about in this dark Desert, come into 
contact with the higher and more subtle 
delusions of his own mind, the delusions of 
the intellect; and, by contrasting these with 
his Ideal, will learn to distinguish between 
the real and the unreal, the shadow and 
substance, between effect and cause, between 
fleeting appearances and permanent Prin- 
ciples. 

In the Desert of Doubt a man is con- 
fronted with all forms of illusion, not only 
the illusions of the senses, but also those of 
abstract thought and religious emotion. It 
is in the testing of, grappling with, and 
ultimately destroying these illusions that 
he develops still higher powers, those of 
discrimination, spiritual perception, stead- 
fastness of purpose, and calmness of mind, 
by the exercise of which he is enabled to 
distinguish unerringly the true from the 
false, both in the world of thought and that 
of material appearances. Having acquired 



56 ENTERING THE KINGDOM 

these powers, and learned how to use them 
as weapons against himself in his holy war- 
fare, he now emerges from the Desert of 
Doubt, the mists and mirages of illusion 
vanish from his pathway, and there looms 
before him the second Gate, the Gateway 
of the Surrender of Opinion. 

As he approaches this Gate, he sees 
before him the whole pathway along which 
he is travelling, and, for a space, obtains 
a glimpse of the glorious heights of attain- 
ment toward which he is moving; he sees 
the Temple of the Higher Life in all its 
majesty, and already feels within him 
the strength and joy and peace of conquest. 
With Sir Galahad he can now exclaim: 

"I . . . saw the Grail, 
The Holy Grail . . . 
. . . And one will crown me king 
Far in the spiritual city," 

for he knows that his ultimate victory is 
assured 

He now enters upon a process of self- 
conquest altogether distinct from that 
which he has hitherto pursued. Up to 
the present he has been overcoming, 



THE FINDING OF A PRINCIPLE 57 

transmuting, and simplifying his animal 
desires; now he commences to transmute 
and simplify his intellect. He has, so far, 
been adjusting his feelings to his Ideal; he 
now begins to adjust his thoughts to that 
Ideal, which also assumes at this point 
larger and more beautiful proportions; and 
for the first time he perceives what really 
constitutes a permanent and imperishable 
Principle. He sees that the righteousness 
for which he has been searching is fixed 
and unvariable; that it cannot be acommo- 
dated to man, but that man must reach up 
to and obey it; that it consists of an unde- 
viating line of conduct, apart from all 
considerations of loss or gain, of reward or 
punishment; that, in reality, it consists in 
abandoning self, with all the sins of desire, 
opinion, and self-interest of which that self 
is composed, and in living the blameless life 
of perfect love toward all men and creatures. 
Such a life is fixed and perfect; it is without 
turning, change, or qualification, and de- 
mands a sinless and perfect conduct. It is 
the direct antithesis of the worldly life of self. 



58 ENTERING THE KINGDOM 

Perceiving this, the seeker sees that 
although he has freed himself from the 
baser passions and desires which enslave 
mankind, he is still in bondage to the fetters 
of opinion; that although he has purified 
himself with a purity to which few aspire, 
and which the world cannot understand, 
he is still defiled with a defilement 
difficult to wash away, — he loves his 
own opinions, and has all along been con- 
founding them with Truth, with the Prin- 
ciple for which he is seeking. He is not 
yet free from strife, and is still involved in 
the competitive laws as they obtain in the 
higher realm of thought. He still believes 
that in his opinions he is right and 
others wrong; in his egotism he has 
even fallen so low as to bestow a mock 
pity on those who hold opinions the reverse 
of his own. But now, realizing this more 
subtle form of selfishness by which he is 
enslaved and perceiving all the train of 
sufferings that spring from it, having also 
acquired the priceless possession of spiritual 
discernment, he reverently bends his head 



THE FINDING OF A PRINCIPLE 59 

and passes through the second Gateway 
toward his final peace. 

Clothing his soul with the colorless 
Garment of Humility, he bends all his en- 
ergies to the uprooting of opinions hitherto 
loved and cherished. He learns to distin- 
guish between Truth, one and unchange- 
able, and his own and others' opinions 
about Truth, which are many and change- 
able. He sees that his opinions about 
Goodness, Purity, Compassion, and Love 
are quite distinct from those qualities them- 
selves, and that he must stand upon those 
divine Principles, and not upon his opinions. 
Hitherto he has regarded his own opinions 
as of great value and the opinions of others 
as worthless, but now he ceases so to elevate 
his own opinions and to defend them against 
those of others, coming to regard them 
as worthless. As a direct result of this 
attitude of mind, he takes refuge in the 
practice of pure Goodness, unalloyed with 
base desire and subtle self-love, and takes 
his stand upon the divine Principles of 
Purity, Wisdom, Compassion, and Love, 



60 ENTERING THE KINGDOM 

incorporating them into his mind, and 
manifesting them in his life. He is now 
clothed with the Righteousness of Christ 
— which is incomprehensible to the world — 
and is rapidly becoming divine. He has 
not only realized the darkness of desire; he 
has also perceived the vanity of speculative 
philosophy, and so he rids his mind of all 
the metaphysical subtleties that have 
no relation to practical holiness, have 
hitherto encumbered his progress, and pre- 
vented him from seeing the enduring 
realities in life. 

He casts from him his opinions and 
speculations one after another, and begins 
to live the life of perfect love toward 
all. With each opinion overcome and 
abandoned as a burden, there is an in- 
creased lightness of spirit, and he begins 
to realise the meaning of being free. 
The divine flowers of Gladness, Joy, 
and Peace spring up spontaneously in his 
heart, and his life becomes a blissful song. 
As the melody in his heart expands and 
grows more and more nearly perfect, his 



THE FINDING OF A PRINCIPLE 61 

outward life harmonizes itself with the 
inward music. All the efforts he put forth 
being now free from strife, he obtains all 
that is necessary for his well-being, without 
pain, anxiety, or fear. He has almost 
entirely transcended the competitive laws, 
and the Law of Love is now the governing 
factor in his life, adjusting all his worldly 
affairs harmoniously, and without struggle 
or difficulty on his part. Indeed, the com- 
petitive laws, as they obtain in the com- 
mercial world, have here been long left 
behind, and have ceased to touch him at 
any point in his material affairs. Here, 
also, he enters into a wider and more 
comprehensive consciousness, and, viewing 
the universe and humanity from the higher 
altitudes of purity and knowledge to which 
he has ascended, perceives the orderly 
sequence of law in all human affairs. The 
pursuit of this Path brings about the 
development of still higher powers of mind, 
and these powers are divine patience, spir- 
itual equanimity, non-resistance, and pro- 
phetic insight. By prophetic insight^ is 



62 ENTERING THE KINGDOM 

not meant the foretelling or" emhh but 
direct perception of the hidden causes 

mat operate in human life and. indeed. 
m ail lire, out of which spring multi- 
ranous arm universal e meets ano events. 

The .v^n mere rises aoove me competitive 
laws as thev operate in me thcuimt- world. 



: I" :: "'''■'■"'■ ,'" 5 r; -7' r; -*"''----'-*::";. arm merrm; 
and anxiety in all their forms, no more 

litem in his life. As he priieeis. the 
imperishable Principles ma: firm the 
foundation and fabric of the universe loom 
before him, and assume proportions more 

and more symmetrical Fir him there is 
ni more anguish; no evil can come near 
his dwelling; and there breaks up in him 
the zawrim^ ir me a Dicing re ace. 

He is not yet free. He has not yet 
finished his journey. He may rest here, 
and that as long as he chooses; but sioner 
or later he will reuse himsel: ti me .est 

life. He is not vet free from self. : ut still 



THE FINDING OF A PRINCIPLE 63 

clings, though with less tenacity, to the love 
of personal existence, and to the idea of 
exclusive interest in his personal possessions. 
When he at last realizes that these 
selfish elements must also be abandoned, 
there appears before him the third Gate: 
the Gateway of Surrender of Self. It is 
no dark portal that he now approaches, 
but one luminous with divine glory, one 
radiant with a radiance with which no 
earthly splendor can vie; and he advances 
toward it with no uncertain step. The 
clouds of Doubt have long been dispersed; 
the sounds of the voices of Temptation are 
lost in the valley below; and with firm gait, 
erect carriage, and a heart filled with 
unspeakable joy, he nears the Gate that 
guards the Kingdom of God. He has now 
given up all but self-interest in the things 
that are his by legal right, but he now 
perceives that he must hold nothing as his 
own; and as he pauses at the Gate, he hears 
the command which cannot be evaded or 
denied, "Yet lackest thou one thing; sell 
all that thou hast, and distribute unto the 

E.K.-5] 



64 ENTERING THE KINGDOM 

poor, and thou shalt have treasure in 
Heaven." Passing through the last great 
Gate, he stands glorious, radiant, free, 
detached from the tyranny of desire, of 
opinion, of self; a divine man, harmless, 
patient, tender, pure; he has found that for 
which he has been searching: the Kingdom 
of God and His Righteousness. 

The journey to the Kingdom may be a 
long and tedious one, or it may be short and 
rapid. It may occupy a minute, or it may 
take ages. Everything depends upon the 
faith and belief of the searcher. The 
majority cannot "enter in because of their 
unbelief;" for how can men realize right- 
eousness when they do not believe in it nor 
in the possibility of its accomplishment ? 
Neither is it necessary to leave the outer 
world, and one's duties therein. Nay, it 
can only be found through the unselfish 
performance of one's duty. Some there 
are whose faith is so great that, when this 
truth is presented to them, they can let 
all personal elements drop out of their 
minds almost immediately, and enter 



THE FINDING OF A PRINCIPLE 65 

into their divine heritage. But all who 
believe and aspire to achieve will sooner or 
later arrive at victory if, amid all their 
worldly duties, they faint not, keep sight 
of the Ideal Goodness, and continue, with 
unshaken resolve, to "press on to Per- 
fection." 



AT REST IN THE KINGDOM AND 
ALL THINGS ADDED 

My life is glad — 

Nowise forgetting yet those other lives 

Painful and poor, wicked and miserable, 

Whereon the gods grant pity! — Sir Edwin Arnold. 

/ "T" S HE whole journey from the Kingdom of 
* Strife to the Kingdom of Love resolves 
itself into a process that may be summed 
up in the following words: The regulation 
and purification of conduct. Such a process 
must, if assiduously pursued, necessarily 
lead to perfection. It will also be seen that 
as the man obtains mastery over certain 
forces within himself, he arrives at a knowl- 
edge of all the laws operating in the 
realm of those forces, and by watching the 
ceaseless working of cause and effect within 
himself until he understands them, he there- 
upon understands them in their universal ad- 
justments in the body of humanity. More- 
over, seeing that all laws governing human 



68 ENTERING THE KINGDOM 

affairs are the direct outcome of the neces- 
sities of the human heart, and having re- 
formed and transmuted those necessities, 
he has brought himself under the guidance 
of other laws operative in accordance 
with his altered condition; and having 
mastered and overcome the selfish forces 
within himself, he can no longer be subject 
to the laws which exist for their governance. 

The process is also one of simplification 
of the mind, a sifting away of all but the 
essential gold in character. As the 
mind is thus simplified, the apparently 
unfathomable complexity of the universe 
assumes simpler and simpler aspects, until 
the whole is seen to resolve itself into, and 
to rest upon, a few unalterable Principles; 
and these Principles are ultimately seen 
to be contained in one, namely, Love. 

The mind thus simplified, the man arrives 
at peace, and now really begins to live. 
Looking back on the personal life he 
has for ever abandoned, he sees it as a 
nightmare from which he has awakened; 
but looking out and down with the 



AT REST IN THE KINGDOM 69 

eyes of the spirit, he sees that others 
continue to live it. He sees men and 
women struggling, fighting, suffering, and 
perishing for what is abundantly given 
them by the bountiful hand of the 
Father, if they would only cease from all 
covetousness and take it without hurt or 
hindrance; and compassion fills his heart, 
and also gladness, for he knows that human- 
ity will wake at last from its long and painful 
dream. In the early part of his journey he 
seemed to be leaving humanity far behind, 
and he sorrowed in his loneliness. 
Now, having reached the highest, having 
attained the goal, he finds himself nearer 
to humanity than ever before — yea, living 
in its very heart, sympathizing with all its 
sorrows, rejoicing in all its joys; having 
no longer any personal considerations to 
defend, he lives entirely in the heart of 
humanity. He lives no longer for himself; 
he lives for others: and so living, he enjoys 
the highest bliss, the deepest peace. For a 
time he searched for Compassion, Love, 
Bliss, Truth; but now he has verily become 



70 ENTERING THE KINGDOM 

Compassion, Love, Bliss, Truth; and it 
may literally he said of him that he has 
ceased to be a personality, for all the per- 
sonal elements have been extinguished, and 
there remain only qualities and prin- 
ciples entirely impersonal. Those qualities 
are now manifested in the man's life, are 
henceforth the mans character. 

Having ceased from the protection of 
self, and living constantly in compassion, 
wisdom, and love, he comes under the 
protection of the highest Law, the Law of 
Love; he understands that Law, and 
consciously co-operates with it; yea, is 
himself inseparately identified with the Law. 

"Foregoing self, the universe grows I"; 

and he whose nature is compassion, wisdom, 
and love cannot possibly need any pro- 
tection; for those Principles themselves con- 
stitute the highest protection, being the real, 
the divine, the immortal in all men, and 
constituting the indestructible reality in the 
cosmic order. Neither does he whose very 
nature is Bliss, Joy, Peace need to seek 
enjoyment. As for competing with others, 



AT REST IN THE KINGDOM 71 

with whom should he compete who has lov- 
ingly identified himself with all ? With whom 
should he struggle who has sacrificed him- 
self for all ? Whose blind, misguided, and 
ineffectual competition should he fear who 
has reached the source of all blessedness, 
and who receives at the hands of the Father 
all necessary things ? Having lost his sel- 
fish personality, he has found his divine 
nature, Love; and Love and all the effects 
of Love now compose his life. He can now 
joyfully exclaim: 

"I have made the acquaintance of the Master of Compas- 
sion; 
I have put on the Garment of the Perfect Law; 
I have entered the realm of the Great Reality; 
Wandering is ended, for Rest is accomplished; 
Pain and sorrow have ceased, for Peace is entered into; 
Confusion is dissolved, for Unity is made manifest; 
Error is vanquished, for Truth is revealed!" 

The harmonizing Principle, Righteousness, 
or Divine Love, being found, all things are 
seen as they are, and not through the illusory 
mediums of selfishness and opinion; the 
universe is One, and all its manifold opera- 
tions are the manifestation of one Law. 
Hitherto in this work laws have been spoken 



72 ENTERING THE KINGDOM 

of as being higher and lower, and this 
distinction was necessary; but now the 
Kingdom is reached, we see that all 
the forces operative in human life are 
the varied manifestations of the One 
Supreme Law of Love. It is by virtue of 
this Law that Humanity suffers, in order that 
by the intensity of its sufferings it shall at last 
become purified and wise, and so relinquish 
the source of suffering, which is selfishness. 

The Law and foundation of the universe 
being Love, it follows that all self-seeking 
is opposed to that Law, and is an effort to 
overcome or ignore the Law; as a result, 
every self-seeking act and thought is followed 
by the exact quota of suffering required 
to annul its effect and so maintain the 
universal harmony. All suffering is, there- 
fore, the restraint that the Law puts upon 
ignorance and selfishness: out of such 
painful restraint Wisdom at last emerges. 

There being no strife and no selfishness 
in the Kingdom, there is therefore no 
suffering, no restraint; there is perfect har- 
mony, equipoise, rest. Those who have 



AT REST IN THE KINGDOM 73 

entered it do not follow any animal inclina- 
tions, having none to follow, but live in 
accordance with the highest Wisdom. Their 
nature is Love, and they live in love toward 
all. They are never troubled about "mak- 
ing a living," as they are Life itself, living 
in the very Heart of Life; and should any 
material or other need arise, that need is 
immediately supplied without any anxiety 
or struggle on their part. Should they be 
called to undertake any work, the money 
and friends needed to carry out that work 
are immediately forthcoming. Having ceased 
to violate their principles, all their needs 
are supplied through legitimate channels. 
Any money or help required comes through 
the instrumentality of good people who are 
either living in the Kingdom themselves, 
or are working for its accomplishment. 
Those who live in the Kingdom of Love 
have all their needs supplied by the Law 
of Love, with all freedom from unrest, just 
as those who live in the kingdom of self 
only meet their needs by much strife and 
suffering. Having altered the root cause 



74 ENTERING THE KINGDOM 

in their heart they have altered all the 
effects in their inner and outer life. As 
self is the root cause of all strife and 
suffering, so Love is the root cause of all 
peace and bliss. 

Those who are at rest in the Kingdom 
do not look for happiness to any outward 
possessions. They see that all such posses- 
sions are mere transient effects that come 
when they are required and pass away 
after their purpose is served. They never 
think of such things as money, clothing, food, 
and the like, except as mere accessories and 
effects of the true Life. They are therefore 
freed from all anxiety and trouble; resting 
in Love, they are the embodiment of happi- 
ness. Standing upon the imperishable Prin- 
ciples of Purity, Compassion, Wisdom, and 
Love, they are immortal and know they are 
immortal; they are one with God, the 
Supreme Good, and know they are one 
with God. Seeing the realities of things, 
they can find no room anywhere for con- 
demnation. All the operations that obtain 
upon the earth they see as instruments of 



AT REST IN THE KINGDOM 75 

the Good Law, even those called evil. All 
men are essentially divine, though unaware 
of their divine nature, and all their acts are 
efforts, even though many of them are dark 
and impotent, to realize some higher good. 
All so-called evil is seen to be rooted in 
ignorance, even the deeds called deliberately 
wicked, so that condemnation ceases, and 
Love and Compassion become all in all. 

But let it not be supposed that the chil- 
dren of the Kingdom live in ease and indo- 
lence, for these two sins are the first that 
have to be eradicated when the search for 
the Kingdom is entered upon; they live in 
a peaceful activity; in fact, they only truly 
live, for the life of self with its train of 
worries, griefs, and fears, is not real life. 
They do their work with scrupulous dili- 
gence, apart from thoughts of self, and em- 
ploy all their means, as well as their powers 
and faculties, which are greatly intensified, 
in building up the Kingdom of Righteous- 
ness in the hearts of others and in the 
world around them. This is their work — 
first by example, then by precept. Hav- 



76 ENTERING THE KINGDOM 

ing sold all that they have by renouncing 
all self-interest in their possesions, they now 
give to the poor by giving of their rich store 
of wisdom, love, and peace to the needy in 
spirit, the weary and broken-hearted, and 
follow the Christ whose name is Love. 
They sorrow no more, but live in per- 
petual gladness; for, though they see the 
suffering in the world, they also see the 
final Bliss and the Eternal Refuge of Love, 
to which whosoever is ready may come now, 
and to which all shall come at last. 

The children of the Kingdom are known 
by their life. They manifest the fruits of 
the Spirit: 'love, joy, peace, long-suffering, 
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, 
temperance, self-control,' ' in all circum- 
stances and vicissitudes. They are entirely 
free from anger, fear, suspicion, jealousy, 
caprice, anxiety, and grief. Living in the 
Righteousness of God, they manifest qualities 
the reverse of those obtaining in the world, 
which are regarded by the world as foolish- 
ness. They demand no rights; they do 
not defend themselves; do not retaliate; 



AT REST IN THE KINGDOM 77 

do good to those who attempt to injure 
them; manifest the same gentle spirit 
toward those who oppose and attack 
them as toward those who agree with 
them; do not pass judgment on others; 
condemn no man and no system; and live 
at peace with all. 

The Kingdom of Heaven is perfect trust, 
perfect knowledge, perfect peace. All is 
music, sweetness, and tranquillity. No irri- 
tations, no bad tempers, no harsh words, 
no suspicions, no lusts, and no disturbing 
elements can enter there. Its children live 
in perfect sweetness, forgiving and forgiven, 
ministering to others with kindly thoughts, 
words, and deeds. That Kingdom is 
in the heart of every man and woman; it is 
their rightful heritage, their own Kingdom; 
theirs to enter now. But no sin can enter 
therein; no self-born thought or deed can 
pass its Golden Gates; no impure desire 
can defile its radiant robes. All may enter 
it who will, but all must pay the price, and 
that is the unconditional abandonment of 
self. "If thou wilt be perfect, sell all that 



78 ENTERING THE KINGDOM 

thou hast;" but at these words the world 
turns away "sorrowful, for it is very rich; ,, 
rich in money it cannot keep; rich 
in fears it cannot let go; rich in sel- 
fish loves to which it greedily clings; 
rich in grievous partings it would fain 
escape; rich in seeking enjoyment; rich 
in pain and sorrow; rich in strife and 
suffering; rich in excitement and woe; rich 
in all things which are not riches, but poor 
in riches themselves — though these are not 
to be found outside the Kingdom; rich in all 
things that pertain to darkness and death; 
but poor in the things are Light and Life. 

He, then, who would realize the Kingdom, 
let him pay the price and enter. If he 
have a great and holy faith he can do it 
now, and, letting fall from him like a gar- 
ment the self to which he has been clinging, 
stand free. If he have less faith, he must 
rise above self more slowly, and find the 
Kingdom by daily effort and patient work. 

The Temple of Righteousness is now built, 
and its four walls are the four Principles 
of Purity, Wisdom, Compassion, Love. Peace 



AT REST IN THE KINGDOM 79 

is its roof, its floor is Steadfastness, its 
entrance-door is Selfless Duty, its atmos- 
phere is Inspiration, and its music is the 
Joy of the perfect. It cannot be shaken; 
being eternal and indestructible, there 
is no more need to seek protection by taking 
thought for the things of the morrow. 
The Kingdom of Heaven being established 
in the heart, the obtaining of the material 
necessities of life is no more considered, for, 
having found the Highest, all these things 
are added as effect to cause; the struggle 
for existence has ceased, and the spiritual, 
mental, and material needs are daily sup- 
plied from the universal abundance: 

Long I sought thee, Spirit holy, 

Master Spirit, meek and lowly; 
Sought thee with a silent sorrow, brooding o'er the woes 
of men; 

Vainly sought thy yoke of meekness 

'Neath the weight of woe and weakness; 
Finding not, yet in my failing, seeking o'er and o'er again. 

In unrest and doubt and sadness 

Dwelt I, yet I knew thy Gladness 
Waited somewhere; somewhere greeted torn and sorrowing 
hearts like mine; 

Knew that somehow I should find thee, 

Leaving sin and woe behind me, 

And at last thy Love should bid me enter into Rest divine . 
E.K -6] 



80 ENTERING THE KINGDOM 

Hatred, mockery, and reviling 

Scorched my seeking soul, defiling 
That which should have been thy Temple, wherein thou 
shouldst move and dwell; 

Praying, striving, hoping, calling; 

Suffering, sorrowing in my falling, 
Still I sought thee, groping blindly in the gloomy depths of 

hell. 

And I sought thee till I found thee; 

And the dark Powers all around me 
Fled, and left me silent, peaceful, brooding o'er thy holy 
themes; 

From within me and without me 

Fled they when I ceased to doubt thee; 
And I found thee in thy Glory, mighty Master of my dreams ! 

Yea, I found thee, Spirit holy, 
Beautiful and pure and lowly; 
Found thy Joy and Peace and Gladness; found thee in 
thy House of Rest; 
Found thy strength in Love and Meekness, 
And my pain and woe and weakness 
Left me, and I walked the Pathway trodden only by the 
blest. 



PART II 

THE HEAVENLY LIFE 



THE DIVINE CENTRE 

The secret of life, of abundant life, with 
its strength, its felicity, and its unbroken 
peace, is to find the Divine Centre within 
oneself and to live in and from that, instead 
of in that outer circumference of disturb- 
ances — the clamors, cravings, and argu- 
mentations that make up the animal and 
intellectual man. These selfish elements 
constitute the mere husks of life, and must 
be thrown away by him who would penetrate 
to the Central Heart of things — to Life 
itself. 

Not to know that within you which is 
changeless and defiant of time and death, 
is not to know anything, but to play vainly 
with unsubstantial reflections in the Mirror 
of Time. Not to find within you the 
passionless Principles that are unmoved 
by the strifes and shows and vanities of the 
world, is to find nothing but illusions that 
vanish as they are grasped. 



84 THE HEAVENLY LIFE 

He who resolves that he will not rest 
satisfied with appearances, shadows, illu- 
sions shall, by the piercing light of that 
resolve, disperse every fleeting phantasy, and 
shall enter into the substance and reality 
of life. He shall learn how to live, and he 
shall live. He shall be the slave of no 
passion, the servant of no opinion, the 
votary of no fond error. Finding the 
Divine Centre within (his own heart) he will 
be pure and calm and strong and wise, and 
ceaselessly radiate the Heavenly Life in 
which he lives — which is himself — His 
Divine Self. 

Having betaken himself to the Divine 
Refuge within, and remaining there, a man 
is free. All his yesterdays are the tide- 
washed and untrodden sands; no sin 
shall rise up against him to torment and 
accuse him and destroy his sacred peace; 
the fires of remorse cannot scorch him, nor 
can the storms of regret devastate his dwell- 
ing-place. His to-morrows are as seeds that 
shall germinate, bursting into beauty and 
potency of life, and no doubt shall shake 



THE DIVINE CENTRE 85 

his trust, no uncertainty rob him of repose. 
The Present is his, only in the immortal 
Present does he live, and it is as the eternal 
vault of blue above that looks down 
silently and calmly, yet radiant with purity 
and light, upon the upturned and tear- 
stained faces of the centuries. 

Men love their desires, for gratification 
seems sweet to them, but its end is pain 
and vacuity; they love the argumentations 
of the intellect, for egotism seems most 
desirable to them, but the fruits thereof are 
humiliation and sorrow. When the soul 
has reached the end of gratification and 
reaped the bitter fruits of egotism, it is 
ready to receive the Divine Wisdom and 
to enter into the Divine Life. Only the 
crucified can be transfigured; only by the 
passing away of self can the Lord of the heart 
rise again into the Immortal Life, and stand 
radiant upon the Olivet of Wisdom. 

Thou hast thy trials ? Every outward 
trial is the replica of an inward imper- 
fection. Thou shalt grow wise by knowing 
this, and shalt thereby transmute trial 



86 THE HEAVENLY LIFE 

into active joy, finding the Kingdom where 
trial cannot come. When wilt thou learn 
thy lessons, O child of earth! All thy sor- 
rows cry out against thee; every pain is 
thy just accuser, and thy griefs are but the 
shadows of thy unworthy and perishable 
self. The Kingdom of Heaven is thine; 
how long wilt thou reject it, preferring the 
lurid atmosphere of hell — the hell of thy 
self-seeking self? 

Where self is not there is the Garden of 
the Heavenly Life, and 

"There spring the healing streams 

Quenching all thirst I there bloom the immortal flowers 
Carpeting all the way with joy! there throng 
Swiftest and sweetest hours!" 

The redeemed sons of God, the glorified in 
body and spirit, are bought with a price, 
and that price is the crucifixion of the per- 
sonality, the death of self; having put 
away that within which is the source of all 
discord, they have found the universal 
Music, the abiding Joy. 

Life is more than motion, it is music; 
more than rest, it is Peace; more than 
work, it is Duty; more than labor, it is 



THE DIVINE CENTRE 87 

Love; more than enjoyment, it is Blessed- 
ness; more than acquiring money and posi- 
tion and reputation, it is Knowledge, Pur- 
pose,*strong and high Resolve. 

Let the impure turn to Purity, and they 
shall be pure; let the weak resort to Strength, 
andthey shall be strong; let the ignorant fly 
to Knowledge, and they shall be wise. All 
things are man's, and he chooses what 
he will have. To-day he chooses in igno- 
rance, to-morrow he shall choose in Wis- 
dom. I He shall work out his own salvation 
whether he believe it or not, for he cannot 
escape himself nor transfer to another 
the eternal responsibility of his own soul. 
By no theological subterfuge may he trick 
the Law of his being, which shall shatter 
all his selfish makeshifts and excuses for 
right thinking and right doing. Nor shall 
God do for him what it is desired his 
soul shall accomplish for itself. What would 
you say of a man who, wanting to possess 
a mansion in which to dwell peacefully, 
purchased the site and then knelt down 
and asked God to build the house for him ? 



88 THE HEAVENLY LIFE 

Would you not say that such a man was 
foolish ? And of another man, who having 
purchased the land, set the architects and 
builders and carpenters at work to erect the 
edifice, would you not say that he was 
wise ? As it is in the building of a 
material house, even so is it in the building 
of a spiritual mansion. Brick by brick, 
pure thought upon pure thought, good 
deed upon good deed, must the habitation 
of a blameless life rise from its sure founda- 
tion until at last it stands out in all the 
majesty of its faultless proportions. Not 
by caprice, nor gift, nor favor does a man 
obtain the spiritual realities, but by diligence, 
watchfulness, energy, and effort. 

"Strong is the soul, and wise and beautiful; 
The seeds of God-like power are in us still; 
Gods are we, bards, saints, heroes, if we will." 

The Spiritual Heart of man is the Heart 
of the universe; finding that Heart, man 
finds strength to accomplish all things. 
He finds there Wisdom to see things as 
they are. He finds there the Peace that 
is divine. At the centre of man's being is 



THE DIVINE CENTRE 89 

the Music that orders the stars — the Eternal 
Harmony. He who would find Blessedness, 
let him find himself; let him abandon 
every discordant desire, every inharmonious 
thought, every unlovely habit and deed, and 
he will find the Grace and Beauty and 
Harmony that form the indestructible 
essence of his own being. 

Men fly from creed to creed, and find — 
unrest; they travel in many lands, and 
discover — disappointment; they build them- 
selves beautiful mansions and plant pleasant 
gardens, and reap — ennui and discomfort. 
Not until a man falls back upon the Truth 
within himself does he find rest and satis- 
faction; not until he builds the inward 
Mansion of Faultless Conduct does he 
find the endless and incorruptible Joy; 
having obtained that, he will infuse it into 
all his outward doings and possessions. 

If a man would have peace, let him 
exercise the spirit of Peace; if he would find 
love, let him dwell in the spirit of Love; 
if he would escape suffering, let him cease 
to inflict it; if he would do noble things for 



90 THE HEAVENLY LIFE 

humanity, let him cease to do ignoble things 
for himself. If he will but quarry the 
mine of his own soul, he shall find there 
all the materials for building whatsoever he 
will, and he shall find there also the central 
Rock on which to build in safety. 

Howsoever a man works to right the 
world, it will never be righted until he has 
put himself right. This may be written 
upon the heart as a mathematical axiom. 
It is not enough to preach Purity, men must 
cease from lust; to exhort to love, they must 
abandon hatred; to extol self-sacrifice, they 
must yield up self; to adorn with mere 
words the Perfect Life, they must be perfect. 

When a man can no longer carry the 
weight of his many sins, let him fly to the 
Christ, whose throne is the centre of his 
own being; and he shall become light-hearted, 
entering the glad company of the im- 
mortals. 

When he can no longer bear the burden of 
his accumulated learning, let a man leave his 
books, his science, his philosophy, and come 
back to himself; and he shall find within, 



THE DIVINE CENTRE 91 

what he outwardly sought and found not— 
his own divinity. 

He ceases to argue about God who has 
found God within. Relying upon the calm 
strength that is not the strength of self, 
he lives God, manifesting in his daily life 
the Highest Goodness, which is Eternal 
Life. 



THE ETERNAL NOW 

XjOW is the reality in which time is con- 
-*• ^ tained. It is more and greater than time; 
it is an ever-present reality. It knows 
neither past nor future, and is eternally 
potent and substantial. Every minute, every 
day, every year is a dream as soon as it 
has passed, to exist only as an imperfect 
and unsubstantial picture in the memory, 
or be held in complete abeyance. 

Past and future are dreams; now is a 
reality. All things are now; all power, all 
possibility, all action is now. Not to act 
and accomplish now is not to act and 
accomplish at all. To live in thoughts of 
what you might have done, or in dreams of 
what you mean to do, this is folly; but to 
put away regret, to anchor anticipation, and 
to do and to work now, this is wisdom. 

While a man is dwelling upon the past 
or future he is missing the present; he is 
forgetting to live now. All things are pos- 



94 THE HEAVENLY LIFE 

sible now, and only now. Without wisdom 
to guide him, mistaking the unreal for 
the real, a man says, "If I had done so and 
so last week, last month, or last year, it 
would have been better with me to-day"; 
or, "I know what is best to be done, and I 
will do it to-morrow." The selfish cannot 
comprehend the vast importance and value 
of the present, and fail to see it as the sub- 
stantial reality of which past and future 
are the empty reflections. It may truly be 
said that past and future do not exist except 
as negative shadows, and to live in them 
— that is, in regretful and selfish con- 
templation or expectation of them — is to miss 
the reality in life. 

"The Present, the Present is all thou hast 
For thy sure possessing; 
Like the patriarch's angel, hold it fast, 
Till it gives its blessing. . . . 
"All which is real now remaineth, 
And fadeth never; 
The hand which upholds it now sustaineth 

The soul for ever. . . . 
"Then of what is to be, and of what is done. 

Why queriest thou? 
The past and the time to be are one, 
And both are NOW!" 



THE ETERNAL NOW 95 

Man has all power now; but not knowing 
this, he says, "I will be perfect next year, 
or in so many years." The dwellers in 
the Kingdom of God, who live only in the 
now, say, "I am perfect now"; refraining 
from all sin now, and ceaselessly guarding 
the portals of the mind, not looking to the 
past nor to the future, not turning to the 
left nor right, they remain eternally holy and 
blessed. "Now is the accepted time; now 
is the day of salvation." 

Say to yourself, "I will live in my Ideal 
now; I will manifest my Ideal now; I will 
be my Ideal now; I will listen to the voice 
of my Ideal now." Thus resolving, and 
thus doing, you shall remain in the Highest, 
and shall eternally manifest the True. 

"Afoot and lighthearted, I take to the open road. 
Henceforth I ask not good fortune: I myself am 

good fortune. 
Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, 

need nothing; 
Done with indoor complaints, libraries, querulous 

criticisms. 
Strong and content, I take to the open road." 

Cease to tread every byway of depend- 
ence, every winding side-path that tempts 

E.K.-7] 



96 THE HEAVENLY LIFE 

thy soul into the shadow-land of the past 
and the future; and manifest thy native 
and divine strength now. Come out into 
the open road. 

All that you would be and hope to 
be, you may be now. Non-accomplishment 
resides in your perpetual postponement; 
having the power to postpone, you also 
have the power to accomplish — to perpetually 
accomplish; realize this truth, and you shall 
be to-day, and every day, the ideal man of 
whom you dreamed. 

Virtue consists in overcoming sin day after 
day, but holiness consists in leaving sin, 
unnoticed and ignored, to die by the way- 
side; and this is done, can only be done, 
in the living now. Say not unto thy soul, 
"Thou shalt be purer to-morrow"; but 
rather say, "Thou shalt be pure now." 
To-morrow is too late for anything, and 
he who sees his help and salvation in to- 
morrow shall continually fail and fall to-day. 

Thou didst fall yesterday ? Didst sin 
grievously ? Having realized this, leave it 
instantly and for ever, and watch that thou 



THE ETERNAL NOW 97 

sinnest not now. The while thou art bewail- 
ing the past every gate of thy soul remaineth 
unguarded against the entrance of sin now. 
Thou shalt not rise by grieving over the irre- 
mediable past, but by remedying the present. 

The foolish man, loving the boggy side- 
path of procrastination rather than the 
firm Highway of Present Effort, says, "I 
will rise early to-morrow; I will get out of 
debt to-morrow; I will carry out my inten- 
tions to-morrow." But the wise man, 
realizing the momentous import of the 
Eternal Now, rises early to-day; keeps out 
of debt to-day; carries out his intentions 
to-day; and so never departs from strength 
and peace and ripe accomplishment. 

What is done now remains; what is to 
be done to-morrow does not appear. It 
is wisdom to leave what has not arrived, 
and to attend to what is; and to attend to 
it with such consecration of soul and 
concentration of effort as shall leave no 
possible loophole for regret to creep in. 

A man's spiritual comprehension being 
clouded by the illusions of self, he says, 



98 THE HEAVENLY LIFE 

"I was born on such a day, so many years 
ago, and shall die at my allotted time." 
But he was not born, neither will he die, 
for how can that which is immortal, which 
eternally is, be subject to birth and death ? 
Let a man throw off his illusions, and then 
he will see that the birth and death of the 
body are the mere incidents of a journey, 
and not its beginning and end: "Our birth is 
but a sleep and a forgetting." 

Looking back to happy beginnings, and 
forward to mournful endings, a man's eyes 
are blinded so that he beholds not his own 
immortality; his ears are closed so that he 
hears not the ever-present harmonies of Joy; 
and his heart is hardened so that it pulsates 
not to the rhythmic sounds of Peace. 

The universe, with all that it contains, is 
now. Put out thy hand, O man, and receive 
the fruits of Wisdom! Cease from thy greedy 
striving, thy selfish sorrowing, thy foolish re- 
gretting, and be content to live. Act now, 
and, lo! all things are done; live now, and, 
behold! thou art in the midst of Plenty; be 
now, and know that thou art perfect. 



THE "ORIGINAL SIMPLICITY" 

IFE is simple. Being is simple. The 
-^ universe is simple. Complexity arises in 
ignorance and self-delusion. The "Original 
Simplicity" of Lao-tze is a term expressive 
of the universe as it is, and not as it appears. 
Looking through the woven network of his 
own illusions, man sees interminable com- 
plication and unfathomable mystery, and 
so loses himself in the labyrinths of his 
own making. Let a man put away egotism, 
and he will see the universe in all the beauty 
of its pristine simplicity. Let him annihilate 
the delusion of the personal "I," and he 
will destroy all the illusions which spring 
from that "I." He will thus "re-become 
a little child," and will "revert to Original 
Simplicity." 

When a man succeeds in entirely forgetting 
and annihilating his personal self, he be- 
comes a mirror in which the universal Reality 
is faultlessly reflected. He is awakened, 



100 THE HEAVENLY LIFE 

and henceforward he lives, not in dreams, 
but realities. 

Pythagoras saw the universe in the ten 
numbers, but even this simplicity may be 
further reduced and the universe ultimately 
found to be contained in the number 
ONE, for all the numerals and all their 
infinite complications are but additions of 
the One. 

Let life cease to be lived as a fragmentary 
thing, and let it be lived as a perfect Whole; 
the simplicity of the Perfect will then be 
revealed. How shall the fragment com- 
prehend the Whole ? Yet how simple that 
the Whole should comprehend the frag- 
ment. How shall sin perceive Holiness ? Yet 
how plain that Holiness should understand 
sin. He who would become the Greater, 
let him abandon the lesser. In no form 
is the circle contained, but in the circle all 
forms are contained. In no color is the 
radiant light imprisoned, but in the radiant 
light all colors are embodied. Let a man 
destroy all the forms of self, and he shall 
apprehend the Circle of Perfection; let him 



THE "ORIGINAL SIMPLICITY" 101 

submerge, in the silent depths of his being, 
the varying colors of his thoughts and 
desires, and he shall be illuminated with 
the White Light of Divine Knowledge. 
In the perfect chord of music the single 
note, though forgotten, is indispensably 
contained; and the drop of water becomes 
of supreme usefulness by losing itself in the 
ocean. Sink thyself compassionately in the 
heart of humanity, and thou shalt reproduce 
the harmonies of Heaven; lose thyself in 
unlimited love toward all, and thou shalt 
work enduring works and shalt become 
one with the Eternal Ocean of Bliss. 

Man evolves outward to the periphery 
of complexity, and then involves backward 
to the Central Simplicity. When a man 
discovers that it is mathematically impos- 
sible for him to know the universe be- 
fore knowing himself, he starts upon 
the Way which leads to the Original 
Simplicity. He begins to unfold from 
within, and as he unfolds himself, he 
enfolds the universe, is himself a micro- 
cosm. 



102 THE HEAVENLY LIFE 

Cease to speculate about God, and find 
the all-embracing Good within thee; so 
shalt thou see the emptiness and vanity of 
speculation, knowing thyself one with God. 

He who will not give up his secret lust, 
his covetousness, his anger, his opinion 
about this or that, can see nor know nothing; 
he will remain a dullard in the school of 
Wisdom, though he be accounted learned 
in the colleges. 

If a man would find the Key of Knowl- 
edge, let him find himself. Thy sins are 
not thyself; they are not any part of thyself; 
they are diseases which thou hast come to 
love. Cease to cling to them, and they will 
no longer cling to thee. Let them fall 
away, and thy self shall stand revealed. 
Thou shalt then know thyself as Compre- 
hensive Vision, Invincible Principle, Im- 
mortal Life, and Eternal Good. 

The impure man believes impurity to be 
his rightful condition, but the pure man 
knows himself as pure being; he also, 
penetrating the Veils, sees all others as 
pure being. Purity is extremely simple, 



THE "ORIGINAL SIMPLICITY" 103 

and needs no argument to support it; im- 
purity is interminably complex, and is ever 
involved in defensive argument. Truth lives 
itself. A blameless life is the only witness 
of Truth. Men cannot see, and will not 
accept the witness until they find it within 
themselves; having found it, a man be- 
comes silent before his fellows. Truth is 
so simple that it cannot be found in the 
region of argument and advertisement, and 
so silent that it is only manifested in actions. 

So extremely simple is Original Simplicity, 
that a man must let go his hold of everything 
before he can perceive it. The great arch 
is strong by virtue of the hollowness under- 
neath, and a wise man becomes strong 
and invincible by emptying himself. 

Meekness, Patience, Love, Compassion, 
and Wisdom — these are the dominant qual- 
ities of Original Simplicity; wherefore the 
imperfect cannot understand it. Wisdom 
only can apprehend Wisdom, wherefore the 
fool says, "No man is wise." The imperfect 
man says, "No man can be perfect," and 
wherefore he remains where he is. Though 



104 THE HEAVENLY LIFE 

he live with a perfect man all his life, he 
shall not behold his perfection. Meekness 
he will call cowardice; Patience, Love, 
and Compassion he will see as weakness; 
and Wisdom will appear to him as folly. 
Faultless discrimination belongs to the Per- 
fect Whole, and resides not in any part, 
wherefore men are exhorted to refrain from 
judgment until they have themselves mani- 
fested the Perfect Life. 

Arriving at Original Simplicity, opacity 
disappears, and the universal transparency 
becomes apparent. He who has found the 
indwelling Reality of his own being has 
found the original and universal Reality. 
Knowing the Divine Life within, the hearts of 
all are known, and the thoughts of all men 
become his who has become the master of 
his own thoughts; wherefore the good man 
does not defend himself, but moulds the 
minds of others to his own likeness. 

As the problematical transcends crudity, 
so Pure Goodness transcends the prob- 
lematical. All problems vanish when Pure 
Goodness is reached; therefore the good 



THE "ORIGINAL SIMPLICITY" 105 

man is called "the slayer of illusions. " 
What problem can vex where sin is not ? 
O thou who strivest loudly and restest not! 
retire into the holy silence of thine own 
being, and live therefrom. So shalt thou, 
finding Pure Goodness, rend in twain the 
Veil of the Temple of Illusion, and shalt 
enter into the Patience, Peace, and tran- 
scendent Glory of the Perfect; for Pure 
Goodness and Original Simplicity are one. 



V. 



THE UNVEILING WISDOM 

A MAN should be superior to his possess- 
* ** ions, his body, his circumstances and 
surroundings, and the opinions of others 
and their attitude toward him. Until he 
is all these, he is not strong and steadfast. 
He should also rise superior to his own 
desires and opinions; and until he is this, 
he is not wise. 

The man who identifies himself with his 
possessions will feel that all is lost when 
these are lost; he who regards himself as 
the outcome and the tool of circumstances 
will weakly fluctuate with every change in 
his outward condition; and great will be 
his unrest and pain who seeks to stand 
upon the approbation of others. 

To detach oneself from every outward 
thing, and to rest securely upon the inward 
Virtue, this is the Unfailing Wisdom. Hav- 
ing this Wisdom, a man will be the same 
whether in riches or in poverty. The one can- 



108 THE HEAVENLY LIFE 

not add to his strength, nor the other rob 
him of his serenity. Neither can riches 
defile him who has washed away all the 
inward defilement, nor the lack of them 
degrade him who has ceased to degrade 
the temple of his soul. 

To refuse to be enslaved by any outward 
thing or happening, regarding all such 
things and happenings as for your use, for 
your education, this is Wisdom. To the 
wise all occurrences are good, and, having 
no eye for evil, they grow wiser every day. 
They utilize all things, and thus put all 
things under their feet. They see all their 
mistakes as soon as made, and accept them 
as lessons of intrinsic value, knowing that 
there are no mistakes in the Divine Order. 
They thus rapidly approach the Divine 
Perfection. They are moved by none, yet 
learn from all. They crave love from none, 
yet give love to all. To learn, and not to 
be shaken; to love where one is not loved; 
herein lies the strength that shall never 
fail a man. The man who says in his heart, 
"I will teach all men, and learn from none," 



THE UNFAILING WISDOM 109 

will neither teach nor learn while in 
that frame of mind, but will remain in his 
folly. 

All strength and wisdom and power and 
knowledge a man will find within himself, 
but he will not find it in egotism; he will 
find it only in obedience, submission, and 
willingness to learn. He must obey the 
Higher, and not glorify himself in the 
lower. He who stands upon egotism, reject- 
ing reproof, instruction, and the lessons of 
experience, will surely fall; yea, he is already 
fallen. Said a great Teacher to his disciples: 
"Those who shall be a lamp unto themselves, 
relying upon themselves only, and not 
relying upon any external help, but holding 
fast to the Truth as their lamp, and, seeking 
their salvation in the Truth alone, shall not 
look for assistance to any besides themselves, 
it is they among my disciples who shall 
reach the very topmost height! But they 
must be willing to learn" The wise man 
is always anxious to learn but never anxious 
to teach, for he knows that the true Teacher 
is in the heart of every man and must 



110 THE HEAVENLY LIFE 

ultimately be found there by all. The 
foolish man, being governed largely by 
vanity, is anxious to teach but unwill- 
ing to learn, not having found the Holy 
Teacher within who speaks wisdom to the 
humbly listening soul. Be self-reliant, but 
let thy self-reliance be saintly and not 
selfish. 

Folly and wisdom, weakness and strength 
are within a man and not in any external 
thing, neither do they spring from any 
external cause. A man cannot be strong 
for another, he can only be strong for him- 
self; he cannot overcome for another, he 
can only overcome of himself. You may 
learn of another, but you must accomplish 
for yourself. Put away all external props, 
and rely upon the Truth within you. A 
creed will not bear a man up in the hour 
of temptation; he must possess the inward 
Knowledge that slays temptation. A spec- 
ulative philosophy will prove a shadowy 
thing in the time of calamity; a man must 
have the inward Wisdom that puts an 
end to grief. 



THE UNFAILING WISDOM 111 

Goodness, the aim of all religions, is 
distinct from the religions themselves. Wis- 
dom, the aim of every philosophy, is distinct 
from all philosophies. The Unfailing Wis- 
dom is found only by constant practice in 
pure thinking and well-doing; by harmon- 
izing one's mind and heart to the things 
that are beautiful, lovable, and true 

In whatever condition a man finds himself, 
he can always find the True; and he can 
find it only by so utilizing his present 
condition as to become strong and wise. 
The effeminate hankering after rewards, 
and the craven fear of punishment, let 
them be put away for ever, and let a man 
joyfully bend himself to the faithful per- 
formance of all his duties, forgetting himself 
and his worthless pleasures, and living 
strong and pure and self-contained; so 
shall he surely find the Unfailing Wisdom, 
the God-like Patience and strength. "The 
situation that has not its Duty, its Ideal, 
was never yet occupied by man. . . . 
Here or nowhere is thy Ideal. Work it 
out therefrom, and, working, believe, live, 

E.K.-8] 



112 THE HEAVENLY LIFE 

be free. The Ideal is in thyself, the im- 
pediment, too, is in thyself; thy condition 
is but the stuff thou art to shape that same 
Ideal out of. What matters whether such 
stuff be of this sort or that, so the form thou 
give it be heroic, be poetic ? Oh, thou that 
pinest in the imprisonment of the Actual, 
and criest bitterly to the gods for a kingdom 
wherein to rule and create, know this of a 
truth : The thing thou seekest is already within 
thee, here and now, couldst thou only see!" 
All that is beautiful and blessed is in 
thyself, not in thy neighbor's wealth. 
Thou art poor ? Thou art poor indeed 
if thou art not stronger than thy poverty! 
Thou hast suffered calamities ? Well, shalt 
thou cure calamity by adding anxiety to it ? 
Canst thou mend a broken vase by weeping 
over it, or restore a lost delight by thy 
lamentations ? There is no evil but will 
vanish if thou wilt wisely meet it. The 
God-like soul grieveth not over what has 
been, is, or will be, but perpetually findeth 
the Divine Good, and gaineth wisdom by 
every occurrence. 



THE UNFAILING WISDOM 113 

Fear is the shadow of selfishness, and 
cannot live where loving Wisdom is. Doubt, 
anxiety, and worry are unsubstantial shades 
in the underworld of self; and shall no 
more trouble him who will climb the serene 
altitudes of his soul. Grief, also, will be 
for ever dispelled by him who will com- 
prehend the Law of his being. He who 
so comprehends shall find the Supreme 
Law of Life, and he shall find that it is 
Love, that it is imperishable Love. He 
shall become one with that divine Love, and 
loving all, with mind freed from all hatred 
and folly, he shall receive the invincible 
protection that Love affords. Claiming 
nothing, he shall suffer no loss; seeking no 
pleasure, he shall find no grief; and employ- 
ing all his powers as instruments of service, 
he shall evermore live in the highest state 
of blessedness and bliss. 

Know this: Thou makest and unmakest 
thyself; thou standest and fallest by what 
thou art. Thou art a slave if thou preferrest 
to be; thou art a master if thou wilt make 
thyself one. Build upon thine animal desires 



114 THE HEAVENLY LIFE 

and intellectual opinions, and thou buildest 
upon the sand; build upon Virtue and 
Holiness, and no wind nor tide shall shake 
thy strong abode. So shall the Unfailing 
Wisdom uphold thee in every emergency, 
and the Everlasting Arms gather thee to 
thy peace. 

"Lay up each year 
Thy harvest of well-doing, wealth that kings 
Nor thieves can take away. When all the things 
Thou callest thine, goods, pleasures, honors fall, 
Thou in thy virtue shalt survive them T all." 



THE MIGHT OF MEEKNESS 



/ TT V HE mountain bends not to the fiercest 
-*- storm, but it shields the fledgeling and 
the lamb; and though all men tread upon it, 
yet it protects them, and bears them up 
upon its deathless bosom. Even so is it 
with the meek man who still, though shaken 
and disturbed by none, compassionately 
bends to shield the lowliest creature, and, 
though he may be despised, lifts all men 
up and lovingly protects them. 

As glorious as the mountain in its silent 
might is the divine man in his silent Meek- 
ness; like its form, his loving compassion 
is expansive and sublime. Truly his body, 
like the mountain's base, is fixed in the 
valleys and the mists; but the summit of 
his being is eternally bathed in cloudless 
glory, and lives with the Silences. 

He that has found Meekness has found 
divinity; he has realized the divine con- 
sciousness, and knows himself as^ divine. 



116 THE HEAVENLY LIFE 

He also knows all others as divine, though 
they know it not themselves, being asleep 
and dreaming. Meekness is a divine quality, 
and as such is all-powerful. The meek 
man overcomes by not resisting, and by 
allowing himself to be defeated he attains 
to the Supreme Conquest. 

The man that conquers another by force 
is strong; the man that conquers himself 
by Meekness is mighty. He that conquers 
another by force will himself likewise be 
conquered; he that conquers himself by 
Meekness shall never be overthrown, the 
human cannot overcome the divine. The 
meek man is triumphant in defeat. Soc- 
rates lives the more by being put to 
death; in the crucified Jesus the risen Christ 
is revealed, and Stephen in receiving his 
stoning defies the hurting power of stones. 
What is real cannot be destroyed. When a 
man finds that within him which is real, 
which is constant, abiding, changeless, and 
eternal, he enters into that reality, and 
becomes meek. All the powers of darkness 
will come against him, but they will do 



THE MIGHT OF MEEKNESS 117 

him no hurt, and shall at last depart from 
him. 

The meek man is found in the time of 
trial; when other men fall he stands. His 
patience is not destroyed by the foolish 
passions of others, and when they come 
against him he does not strive nor cry. 
He knows the utter powerlessness of all 
evil, having overcome it in himself; and 
lives in the changeless strength and power 
of divine Good. 

Meekness is one aspect of the operation 
of the changeless Love that is at the 
Heart of all things, and is therefore an 
imperishable quality. He who lives in it is 
without fear, knowing the Highest and 
having the lowest under his feet. 

The meek man shines in darkness, and 
flourishes in obscurity. Meekness cannot 
boast, nor advertise itself, nor thrive on 
popularity. It is practised, and being a 
spiritual quality it is perceived only by 
the eye of the spirit. Those who are not 
spiritually awakened see it not, nor do they 
love it, being enamored of and blinded by 



/ 
118 THE HEAVENLY LIFE 



worldly shows and appearances. Nor does 
history take note of the meek man. Its 
glory is that of strife and self-aggrandisement; 
his is the glory of peace and gentleness. 
History chronicles the earthly, not the 
heavenly acts. Yet though he lives in ob- 
scurity he cannot be hidden— for how can light 
be hid ?; he continues to shine after he 
has withdrawn himself from the world, 
and is worshipped by the world that knew 
him not. 

That the meek man should be neglected, 
abused, or misunderstood is reckoned by 
him as of no account, and therefore not to 
be considered, much less resisted. He knows 
that all such weapons are the flimsiest and 
most ineffectual of shadows. To them, 
therefore, who give him evil he gives good. 
He resists none, and thereby conquers all. 

He who imagines he can be injured by 
others, who seeks to justify and defend 
himself against them, does not understand 
Meekness, does not comprehend the essence 
and meaning of life. "He abused me, he 
beat me, he defeated me, he robbed me. — 



THE MIGHT OF MEEKNESS 119 

In those who harbor such thoughts hatred 
will never cease, . . . for hatred ceases not 
by hatred at any time; hatred ceases by 
love." What sayest thou, thy neighbor 
has spoken thee falsely ? Well, what of 
that ? Can a falsity hurt thee ? What is 
false is false, and there is an end of it. 
It is without life, and without power to 
hurt any but him who seeks to hurt by it. 
It is nothing to thee that thy neighbor 
should speak falsely of thee, but it is much 
to thee that thou shouldst resist him, and 
seek to justify thyself, for, by so doing, 
thou givest life and vitality to thy neigh- 
bor's falseness, so that thou art injured 
and distressed. Take all evil out of thine 
own heart, then shalt thou see the folly of 
resisting it in another. Thou wilt be 
trodden on ? Thou art trodden on already 
if thou thinkest thus. The injury that thou 
seest as coming from another comes only 
from thyself. The wrong thought, or word, 
or act of another has no power to hurt 
thee unless thou vivify it by thy passionate 
resistance, and so receivest it into thy- 



120 THE HEAVENLY LIFE 

self. If a man slander me, that is his con- 
cern, not mine. I have to do with my 
own soul, not with my neighbor's. 
Though all the world misjudge me, it is 
no business of mine; but that I should 
possess my soul in Purity and Love, that 
is all my business. There shall be no 
end to strife until men cease to justify 
themselves. He who would have wars cease 
let him cease to defend any party; let him 
cease to defend himself. Not by strife can 
peace come, but by ceasing from strife. 
The glory of Caesar resides in the resistance 
of his enemies. They resist and fall. Give 
to Caesar what Caesar demands, and Caesar* s 
glory and power are gone. Thus by 
submission does the meek man conquer 
the strong man; but it is not the outward 
show of submission that is slavery, it is 
the inward and spiritual submission that 
is freedom. 

Claiming no rights, the meek man is not 
troubled with self-defence and self-justi- 
fication; he lives in love, and therefore 
comes under the immediate and vital pro- 



THE MIGHT OF MEEKNESS 121 

tection of the Great Love that is the 
Eternal Law of the universe. He neither 
claims nor seeks his own; thus do all things 
come to him, and all the universe shields 
and protects him. 

He who says, "I have tried Meekness, 
and it has failed," has not tried Meekness. 
It cannot be tried as an experiment. It is 
only arrived at by unreserved self-sacrifice. 
Meekness does not consist merely in non- 
resistance in action; it consists pre-eminently 
in non-resistance in thought, in ceasing to 
hold or to have any selfish, condemnatory, 
or retaliatory thoughts. The meek man 
therefore cannot take offence or have 
his feelings hurt, living as he does above 
hatred, folly, and vanity. Meekness can 
never fail. 

O thou who searchest for the Heavenly 
Life! strive after Meekness; increase thy 
patience and forbearance day by day; bid 
thy tongue cease from all harsh words; 
withdraw thy mind from selfish arguments; 
and refuse to brood upon thy wrong: so 
living, thou shalt carefully tend and cultivate 



122 THE HEAVENLY LIFE 

the pure and delicate flower of Meekness 
in thy heart, until at last its divine sweetness 
and purity and beauteous perfection shall 
be revealed to thee, and thou shalt become 
gentle, joyful, and strong. Repine not that 
thou art surrounded by irritable and selfish 
people; but rather rejoice that thou art so 
favored as to have thine own imperfections 
revealed to thee, and that thou art so placed 
as to necessitate within thee a constant 
struggle for self-mastery and the attainment 
of perfection. The more there is of harsh- 
ness and selfishness around thee the greater 
is the need of thy Meekness and love. 
If others seek to wrong thee, all the more 
is it needful that thou shouldst cease from 
all wrong, and live in love; if others preach 
Meekness, humility, and love, and do not 
practise these, trouble not, nor be annoyed; 
but do thou in the silence of thy heart 
and in thy contact with others practise 
these things, and they shall preach them- 
selves. Though thou utter no declama- 
tory word, and stand before no gathered 
audience, thou shalt teach the whole world. 



THE MIGHT OF MEEKNESS 123 

As thou becomest meek, thou shalt learn 
the deeper secrets of the universe. Nothing is 
hidden from him who overcometh himself. 
Into the cause of causes shalt thou penetrate, 
and lifting, one after another, every veil of 
illusion, shalt reach at last the inmost 
Heart of Being. Thus becoming one with 
Life, thou shalt know all life, and, seeing 
into causes, and knowing realities, thou 
shalt be no more anxious about thyself 
and others and the world, but shalt see 
that all things that are are engines of the 
Great Law. Canopied with gentleness, thou 
shalt bless and never curse, love and never 
hate, forgive and never condemn, yield 
where others strive, give up where others 
grasp, lose where others gain. And in 
their strength they shall be weak; and in 
thy weakness thou shalt be strong; yea, 
thou shalt mightily prevail. He that hath 
not unbroken gentleness hath not Truth: 

"Therefore when Heaven would save a man, it enfolds him 
with gentleness." 



THE RIGHTEOUS MAN 

>"T" V HE righteous man is invincible. No 
-■• enemy can possibly o y rercome or confound 
him; an'd he needs no other protection than 
that of his own integrity and holiness. 

As it is impossible for evil to overcome 
Good, so the righteous man can never be 
brought low by the unrighteous. Slander, 
envy, hatred, malice can never reach the 
righteous man nor cause him any suffering, 
and those who try to injure him only succeed 
ultimately in bringing ignominy upon 
themselves. 

The righteous man, having nothing to 
hide, committing no acts that require 
stealth, and harboring no thoughts and 
desires that he would not like others to 
know, is fearless and unashamed. His step 
is firm, his body upright, and his speech 
direct and without ambiguity. He looks 
everybody in the face. How can he fear 
any who wrongs none ? How can he be 



126 THE HEAVENLY LIFE 

ashamed before any who deceives none ? 
Ceasing from all wrong he can never 
be wronged; ceasing from all deceit he can 
never be deceived. 

The righteous man, performing all his 
work with scrupulous diligence, and living 
above sin, is invulnerable at every point. 
He who has slain the inward enemies of 
virtue can never be brought low by any 
outward enemy; neither does he need to 
seek any protection against them, righteous- 
ness being an all-sufficient protection. 

The unrighteous man is vulnerable at 
almost every point; living in his passions, 
the slave of prejudices, impulses, and ill- 
formed opinions, he is continually suffering, 
as he imagines, at the hands of others. 
The slanders, attacks, and accusations of 
others cause him great suffering because 
they have a basis of truth in himself; 
not having the protection of righteousness, 
he endeavors to justify and protect him- 
self by resorting to retaliation and specious 
argument, and even to subterfuge and 
deceit. 



THE RIGHTEOUS MAN 127 

The partially righteous man is vulnerable 
at every point where he falls short of 
righteousness, and should the righteous man 
fall from his righteousness and give way to 
one sin, his invincibility is gone, for he has 
thereby placed himself where attack and 
accusation can justly reach and injure him, 
because he has first injured himself. 

If a man suffers or is injured through the 
instrumentality of others, let him look to 
himself; putting aside self-pity and self- 
defence, he will find in his own heart the 
source of all his woe. 

No evil can happen to the righteous man 
who has cut off the source of evil in him- 
self; living in the All-Good, and abstaining 
from sin in thought, word, and deed, 
whatever happens to him is good; neither 
can any person, event, or circumstance 
cause him suffering, for the tyranny of 
circumstance is utterly destroyed for him 
who has broken the bonds of sin. 

The suffering, the sorrowing, the weary 
and broken-hearted ever seek a sorrowless 
refuge, a haven of perpetual peace. Let 

E.K.-9] 



128 THE HEAVENLY LIFE 

such go to the refuge of the righteous life; 
let them come now and enter the haven of 
the sinless state, for sorrow cannot overtake 
the righteous; suffering cannot reach him 
who does not waste in self-seeking his 
spiritual substance; and he cannot be 
afflicted by weariness and unrest whose 
heart is at peace with all. 



PERFECT LOVE 

r_ |~ A HE Children of Light, who abide in the 
-■- Kingdom of Heaven, see the universe and 
all that it contains as the manifestation of 
one Law — the Law of Love. They see 
Love as the moulding, sustaining, protecting, 
and perfecting Power immanent in all 
things animate and inanimate. To them 
Love is not merely and only a rule of life, 
it is the Law of Life, it is Life itself. Know- 
ing this, they order their whole life in 
accordance with Love, not regarding their 
own personality. Thus practising obedi- 
ence to the Highest, to divine Love, they 
become conscious partakers of the power 
of Love; and so arrive at perfect Freedom 
as Masters of Destiny. 

The universe is preserved because Love 
is at the Heart of it. Love is the only 
preservative power. While there is hatred 
in the heart of man, he imagines the Law 
to be cruel; but when his heart is mellowed 



130 THE HEAVENLY LIFE 

by Compassion and by Love, he perceives 
that the Law is Infinite Kindness. So kind 
is the Law that it protects man against his 
own ignorance. Man, in his puny efforts 
to subvert the Law by attaching undue 
importance to his own little personality, 
brings upon himself such trains of suffering 
that he is at last compelled, in the depth 
of his afflictions, to seek for Wisdom; 
finding Wisdom, he finds Love, and knows 
it as the Law of his being, the Law of the 
universe. Love does not punish; man 
punishes himself by his own hatred; by 
striving to preserve evil that has no life 
by which to preserve itself, and by trying 
to subvert Love, which can neither be 
overcome nor destroyed, being of the sub- 
stance of Life. When a man burns himself, 
does he accuse the fire ? Therefore when 
a man suffers, let him look for some 
ignorance or disobedience within himself. 
Love is Perfect Harmony, pure Bliss, and 
contains, no element of suffering. Let a 
man think no thought and do no act not 
in accordance with pure Love, and suffer- 



PERFECT LOVE 131 

ing shall no more trouble him. If a man 
would know Love and partake of its un- 
dying bliss, he must practise it in his heart; 
he must become Love. 

He who always acts from the spirit of Love 
is never deserted, is never left in a dilemma 
or difficulty, for Love— impersonal Love— is 
both Knowledge and Power. He who has 
learned how to Love has learned how to 
master every difficulty, how to transmute 
every failure into success, how to clothe 
every event and condition in garments of 
blessedness and beauty. 

The way to Love is by self-mastery, and, 
travelling that way, a man builds himself up 
in Knowledge as he proceeds. Arriving at 
Love, he enters into full possession of body 
and mind, by right of the divine Power 
he has earned. 

"Perfect Love casteth out fear." To 
know Love is to know that there is no 
harmful power in the whole universe. 
Even sin itself, which the worldly and 
unbelieving imagine to be so unconquerable, 
is known as a weak and perishable 



132 THE HEAVENLY LIFE 

thing, that shrinks and disappears before 
the compelling power of Good. Perfect 
Love is perfect Harmlessness. He who 
has destroyed in himself all thoughts of harm 
and all desire to harm, receives the uni- 
versal protection, and knows himself to be 
invincible. 

Perfect Love is perfect Patience. Anger 
and irritability cannot dwell with it nor 
come near it. It sweetens every bitter 
occasion with the perfume of holiness, and 
transmutes trial into divine strength. Com- 
plaint is foreign to it. He who loves 
bewails nothing, but accepts all things and 
conditions as heavenly guests; he is therefore 
constantly blessed, and sorrow does not 
overtake him. 

Perfect Love is perfect Trust. He who 
has destroyed the desire to grasp can never 
be troubled with the fear of loss. Loss 
and gain are alike foreign to him. Stead- 
fastly maintaining a loving attitude of mind 
toward all, and pursuing in the performance 
of his labors a constant and loving activity, 
Love protects him and evermore supplies 



PERFECT LOVE 133 

him in fullest measure with all that he 
needs. 

Perfect Love is perfect Power. The 
wisely loving heart commands without exer- 
cising any authority. All things and all 
men obey him who obeys the Highest. 
He thinks, and lo! he has already accom- 
plished. He speaks, and behold! a world 
hangs upon his simple utterances. He has 
harmonized his thoughts with the Imper- 
ishable and Unconquerable Forces, and 
for him weakness and uncertainty are no 
more. His every thought is a purpose; his 
every act an accomplishment; he moves 
with the Great Law, not setting his puny 
personal will against it, and thus becomes 
a channel through which the Divine Power 
can flow in unimpeded and beneficent 
expression. He has thus become Power 
itself. 

Perfect Love is perfect Wisdom. The 
man who loves all is the man who knows 
all. Having thoroughly learned the lessons 
of his own heart, he knows the tasks and 
trials of other hearts, and adapts himself 



134 THE HEAVENLY LIFE 

to them gently and without ostentation. 
Love illuminates the intellect; without it the 
intellect is blind and cold and lifeless. Love 
succeeds where the intellect fails; sees where 
the intellect is blind; knows where the 
intellect is ignorant. Reason is only com- 
pleted in Love, and is ultimately absorbed 
in it. Love is the Supreme Reality in the 
universe, and as such it contains all Truth. 
Infinite Tenderness enfolds and cherishes 
the universe; therefore is the wise man 
gentle and childlike and tender-hearted. 
He sees that the one thing all creatures 
need is Love, and he gives unstintingly. 
He knows that all occasions require the 
adjusting power of Love, and he ceases 
from harshness. . 

To the eye of Love all things are revealed, 
not as an infinity of complex effects, but 
in the light of Eternal Principles, out of 
which spring all causes and effects, and 
back into which they return. "God is 
Love"; than Love there is nothing more 
perfect. He who would find pure Knowl- 
edge let him find pure Love. 



PERFECT LOVE 135 

Perfect Love is Perfect Peace. He who 
dwells with it has completed his pilgrimage 
in the underworld of sorrow. With mind 
calm and heart at rest, he has banished the 
shadows of grief, and knows Eternal Life. 

If thou wouldst perfect thyself in Knowl- 
edge, perfect thyself in Love. If thou 
wouldst reach the Highest, ceaselessly cul- 
tivate a loving and compassionate heart. 



PERFECT FREEDOM 

^X^HERE is Perfect Freedom in the Heaven- 
*■■ \y Life. This is its great glory. This 
Supreme Freedom is gained by obedience. He 
who obeys the Highest co-operates with the 
Highest, and so masters every force within 
himself and every condition without. A man 
may choose the lower and neglect the Higher, 
but the Higher is never overcome by the 
lower: herein lies the revelation of Freedom. 
Let a man choose the Higher and abandon, 
the lower; he shall then establish himself 
as an Overcomer, and shall realize Perfect 
Freedom. 

To give the reins to inclination is the 
only slavery; to conquer oneself the only 
freedom. The slave to self loves his chains, 
and will not have one of them broken for 
fear he should be depriving himself of some 
cherished delight. He clings to his grati- 
fications and vanities, regarding freedom 
from them as an empty and undesirable 



138 THE HEAVENLY LIFE 

condition. He thus defeats and enslaves 
himself. 

By self-enlightenment is Perfect Freedom 
found. While a man remains ignorant 
of himself, of his desires, of his emotions 
and thoughts, and of the inward causes 
that mould his life and destiny, having 
neither control nor understanding of him- 
self, he will remain in bondage to passion, 
sorrow, suffering, and fluctuating fortune. 
The Land of Perfect Freedom lies through 
the Gate of Knowledge. 

All outward oppression is only the shadow 
and effect of the real oppression within. 
For ages the oppressed have cried for liberty, 
and a thousand man-made statutes have 
failed to give it to them. They only can give 
it to themselves; they shall find it only 
in obedience to the Divine Statutes that 
are inscribed upon their hearts. Let them 
resort to the inward Freedom, and the 
shadow of oppression shall no more darken 
the earth. Let men cease to oppress them- 
selves, and no man shall oppress his brother. 

Men legislate for an outward freedom, 



PERFECT FREEDOM 139 

yet continue to render such freedom impos- 
sible of achievement by fostering an inward 
condition of enslavement. They thus pursue 
a shadow without, and ignore the substance 
within. Man will be free when he is freed 
from self. All outward forms of bondage 
and oppression shall cease to be when man 
ceases to be the willing bond-slave of passion, 
error, and ignorance. Freedom is to the free. 
While men cling to weakness they cannot 
have strength; while they love darkness 
they can receive no light; so long as 
they prefer bondage they can enjoy no 
liberty. Strength, light, and freedom are 
ready now, and can be had by all who love 
them, who aspire to them. Freedom does 
not reside in co-operative aggression, for 
this will always produce, reactively, co- 
operative defence — hence warfare, hatred, 
party strife, and the destruction of liberty. 
Freedom resides in individual self-conquest. 
The emancipation of Humanity is frus- 
trated and withheld by the self-enslavement 
of the unit. Thou who criest to man and 
to God for liberty, liberate thyself! j V4 



140 THE HEAVENLY LIFE 

The Heavenly Freedom is freedom from 
passion, from cravings, from opinions, from 
the tyranny of the flesh, and the tyranny 
of the intellect: this first, and then all 
outward freedom, as effect to cause. The 
Freedom that begins within and extends 
outwardly until it embraces the whole man, 
is an emancipation so complete, all-embrac- 
ing, and perfect as to leave no galling fetter 
unbroken. Free thy soul from all sin, and 
thou shalt walk a freed and fearless man 
in the midst of a world of fearful slaves; 
and, seeing thee, many slaves shall take 
heart and shall join thee in thy glorious 
freedom. 

He who says, "My worldly duties are 
irksome to me; I will leave them and go 
into solitude, where I shall be as free as 
the air," thinking to gain freedom thus, 
will find only a harder slavery. The tree 
of Freedom is rooted in Duty, and he who 
would pluck its sweet fruits must discover 
joy in Duty. 

Glad-hearted, calm, and ready for all 
tasks is he who is freed from self. Irksome- 



PERFECT FREEDOM 141 

ness and weariness cannot enter his heart, 
and his divine strength lightens every bur- 
den so that its weight is not felt. He does 
not run away from Duty with his chains 
about him, but breaks them and stands 
free. 

Make thyself pure; make thyself proof 
against weakness, temptation, and sin; for 
only in thine own heart and mind shalt 
thou find that Perfect Freedom for which 
the whole world sighs and seeks in vain. 



GREATNESS AND GOODNESS 

/"^OODNESS, simplicity, greatness: these 
^-* three are one, and this trinity of perfection 
cannot be separated. All greatness springs 
from goodness, and all goodness is pro- 
foundly simple. Without goodness there 
is no greatness. Some men pass through 
the world as destructive forces, like the 
tornado or the avalanche, but they are not 
great; they are to greatness as the avalanche 
is to the mountain. The work of greatness 
is enduring and preservative, and not violent 
and destructive. The greatest souls are 
the gentlest. 

Greatness is never obtrusive. It works 
in silence, seeking no recognition, which is 
why it is not easily perceived and recog- 
nized. Like the mountain, it towers up in 
its vastness, so that those in its immediate 
vicinity, who receive its shelter and shade, 
do not see it. Its sublime grandeur is only 
beheld as they recede from it. The great 

E.K.-10] 



144 THE HEAVENLY LIFE 

man is not seen by his contemporaries; 
the majesty of his form is outlined only 
through its recession in time. This is the awe 
and enchantment of distance. Men occupy 
themselves with the small things: their 
houses, trees, land. Few contemplate the 
mountain at whose base they live, and 
fewer still essay to explore it. But in the 
distance these small things disappear, and 
then the solitary beauty of the mountain is 
perceived. Popularity, noisy obtrusiveness, 
and shallow show, these superficialities 
rapidly disappear, and leave behind no 
enduring mark; whereas greatness slowly 
emerges from obscurity, and endures for 
ever. 

Jewish rabbi and rabble alike saw not 
the divine beauty of Jesus; they saw only 
an unlettered carpenter. To his acquaint- 
ances, Homer was only a blind beggar, but 
the centuries reveal him as Homer the 
immortal poet. Two hundred years after 
the farmer of Stratford— and all that is known 
of him— has disappeared the real Shakes- 
peare is discerned. All true genius is 



GREATNESS AND GOODNESS 145 

impersonal. It belongs not to the man 
through whom it is manifested; it belongs 
to all. It is a diffusion of pure Truth; the 
Light of Heaven descending on all mankind. 

Every work of genius, in whatsoever 
department of art, is a symbolic manifest- 
ation of impersonal Truth. It is universal, 
and finds a response in every heart in every 
age and race. Anything short of this is 
not genius, is not greatness. That work which 
defends a religion perishes; it is religion 
that lives. Theories about immortality fade 
away, immortal man endures; commentaries 
upon Truth come to the dust, Truth alone 
remains. That only is true in art which 
represents the True; that only is great in 
life which is universally and eternally true. 
The True is the Good; and the Good 
is the True. 

Every immortal work springs from the 
Eternal Goodness in the human heart, and 
is clothed with the sweet and unaffected 
simplicity of goodness. The greatest art is, 
like nature, artless. It knows no trick, no 
pose, no studied effort. There are no 



146 THE HEAVENLY LIFE 

mere tricks in Shakespeare; he is the 
greatest of dramatists because he is the 
simplest. The critics, not understanding 
the wise simplicity of greatness, con- 
demn the loftiest work. They cannot 
discriminate between the childish and the 
child-like. The True, the Beautiful, the 
Great, is always childlike, and is perennially 
fresh and young. 

The great man is always the good man; 
he is always simple. He draws from, nay, 
lives in, the inexhaustible fountain of divine 
Goodness within; he inhabits the Heavenly 
Places; lives with the Invisible: he is inspired 
and breathes the airs of Heaven. 

He who would be great let him learn to 
be good. He will therefore become great 
by not seeking greatness. The selfish 
desire to be great is an indication of 
littleness, of personal vanity and obtrusive- 
ness. The willingness to disappear from 
gaze, the utter absence of self-aggrandize- 
ment is the witness of greatness. 

Littleness seeks and loves authority. 
Greatness is never authoritative, and 



GREATNESS AND GOODNESS 147 

thereby becomes the authority to which 
after ages appeal. He who seeks, loses; 
he who is willing to lose, wins all 
men. Be thy simple self, thy better self, 
thine impersonal self, and lo! thou art great. 
He who selfishly seeks authority shall suc- 
ceed only in becoming a trembling apologist, 
courting protection behind the back of 
acknowledged greatness. He who will be- 
come the servant of all men, desiring no 
personal authority, shall live as a man, and 
shall be called great. "Abide in the simple 
and noble regions of thy life, obey thy heart, 
and thou shalt reproduce the fore-world 
again." Forget thine own little self, and 
fall back upon the Universal self, and thou 
shalt reproduce in living and enduring forms 
a thousand beautiful experiences; thou shalt 
find within thyself the simple goodness 
that is greatness. 

"It is as easy to be great as to be small," 
says Emerson; and he utters a profound 
truth. Forgetfulness of self is the whole 
of greatness, as it is the whole of goodness 
and happiness. In a*fleeting moment of self- 



148 THE HEAVENLY LIFE 

forgetfulness the smallest individuality be- 
comes great; extend that moment indefinitely, 
and there is a great soul, a great life. Cast 
away thy personality, thy pretty cravings, 
vanities, and ambitions, as a worthless 
garment, and dwell in the loving, com- 
passionate, selfless regions of thy soul, and 
thou art no longer small — thou art great. 

Asserting personal authority, a man de- 
scends into littleness; practising goodness, 
a man ascends into greatness. The pre- 
sumptuousness of the small may for a time 
obscure the humility of the great, but it is 
at last swallowed up by it, as the noisy 
river is lost in the calm ocean. 

The vulgarity of ignorance and the pride 
of learning must disappear. Their worth- 
lessness is equal. They have no part in 
the Soul of Goodness. If thou wouldst 
do, thou must be. Thou shalt not mistake 
information for Knowledge; thou must know 
thyself as pure Knowledge. Thou shalt 
not confuse learning with Wisdom; thou 
must apprehend thyself as undefined Wis- 
dom. 



GREATNESS AND GOODNESS 149 

Wouldst thou write a living book ? Thou 
must first live; thou shalt draw around thee 
the mystic garment of a manifold experience, 
and shalt learn, through enjoyment and suf- 
fering, gladness and sorrow, conquest and 
defeat, what neither book nor teacher can 
teach thee. Thou shalt learn of life, of thy 
soul; thou shalt tread the Lonely Road, 
and shalt become; thou shalt be. Thou shalt 
then write thy book, and it shall live; it 
shall be more than a book. Let thy book 
first live in thee, then shalt thou live in thy 
book. 

Wouldst thou carve a statue that shall 
captivate the ages, or paint a picture that 
shall endure ? Thou shalt acquaint thyself 
with the divine Beauty within thee. Thou 
shalt comprehend and adore the Invisible 
Beauty; thou shalt know the Principles 
that are the soul of Form; thou shalt 
perceive the matchless symmetry and fault- 
less proportions of Life, of Being, of the 
Universe: thus knowing the eternally True 
thou shalt carve or paint the indescribably 
Beautiful. 



150 THE HEAVENLY LIFE 

Wouldst thou produce an imperishable 
poem? Thou shalt first live thy poem; 
thou shalt think and act rhythmically; 
thou shalt find the never-failing source of 
inspiration in the loving places of thy heart. 
Then shall immortal lines flow from thee 
without effort, and, as the flowers of wood 
and field spontaneously spring, so shall 
beautiful thoughts grow up in thine heart 
and, enshrined in words as moulds to 
their beauty, shall subdue the hearts of 
men. 

Wouldst thou compose such music as 
shall gladden and uplift the world ? Thou 
shalt adjust thy soul to the Heavenly Har- 
monies within. Thou shalt know that thy- 
self, that life and the universe are Music. 
Thou shalt touch the chords of Life. Thou 
shalt know that Music is everywhere; that 
it is the Heart of Being; then shalt thou 
hear with thy spiritual ear the Deathless 
Sympathies. 

Wouldst thou preach the living Word ? 
Thou shalt forego thyself, and become that 
Word. Thou shalt know one thing: that the 



GREATNESS AND GOODNESS 151 

human heart is good, is divine; thou shalt 
live one thing: Love. Thou shalt love all, 
seeing no evil, thinking no evil, believing no 
evil; then, though thou speak but little, thine 
every act shall be a power, thine every word 
a precept. By thy pure thought, thy selfless 
deed, though it appear hidden, thou shalt 
preach, to untold multitudes of aspiring 
souls through the ages. 

To him who chooses Goodness, sacrificing 
all, is given what is more than and in- 
cludes all. He becomes possessor of the 
Best, communes with the Highest, and 
enters the company of the Great. 

The greatness that is flawless, rounded, 
and complete is above and beyond all art. 
It is Perfect Goodness in manifestation; 
therefore the greatest souls are always 
Teachers. 



HEAVEN IN THE HEART 

/ TpHE toil of life ceases when the heart is 
-^ pure. When the mind is harmonized with 
the Divine Law the wheel of drudgery 
ceases to turn, and all work is transmuted 
into joyful activity. The pure-hearted are 
as the lilies of the field, which toil not, yet 
are fed and clothed from the abundant 
storehouse of the All-Good. But the lily 
is not lethargic; it is ceaselessly active, 
drawing nourishment from earth and air 
and sun. By the Divine Power immanent 
within it, it builds itself up, cell by cell y 
opening itself to the light, growing and 
expanding toward the perfect flower. So 
is it with those who, having yielded up 
self-will, have learned to co-operate with 
the Divine Will. They grow in grace, 
goodness, and beauty, freed from anxiety, 
and without friction and toil. They never 
work in vain; there is no waste action. 
Every thought, act, and thing done sub- 



154 THE HEAVENLY LIFE 

serves the Divine Purpose, and adds to the 
sum-total of the world's happiness. 

Heaven is within. They will look for 
it in vain who look elsewhere. In no 
outward place will the soul find Heaven 
until it finds it within itself; for wherever 
the soul goes its thoughts and desires 
go with it; and however beautiful may 
be its outward dwelling-place, if there is sin 
within, there will be darkness and gloom 
without; for sin casts a dark shadow 
over the pathway of the soul — the shadow 
of sorrow. 

The world is beautiful, transcendently 
and wonderfully beautiful. Its beauties and 
inspiring wonders cannot be numbered; yet, 
to the sin-sodden mind, it appears as a 
dark and joyless place. Where passion and 
self are, there is hell, and there are all the 
pains of hell; where Holiness and Love 
are, there is Heaven, and there are all the 
joys of Heaven. 

Heaven is here. It is also everywhere. 
It is wherever there is a pure heart. The 
whole universe is abounding with joy, but 



HEAVEN IN THE HEART 155 

the sin-bound heart can neither see, hear, 
nor partake of it. No one is, or can be, 
arbitrarily shut out from Heaven; each 
shuts himself out. Its Golden Gates are 
eternally ajar, but the selfish cannot find 
them; they mourn, yet see not; they cry, 
but hear not. Only to those who turn 
their eyes to heavenly things, their ears to 
heavenly sounds, are the happy Portals of 
the Kingdom revealed, and they enter and 
are glad. 

All life is gladness when the heart is 
right, when it is attuned to the sweet chords 
of holy Love. Life is Religion, Religion is 
life, and all is Joy and Gladness. The 
jarring notes of creeds and parties, the 
black shadows of sin, let them pass away 
for ever; they cannot enter the Door of 
Life; they form no part of Religion. Joy, 
Music, Beauty: these belong to the True 
Order of things; they are of the texture of 
the universe; of these is the divine Garment 
of Life woven. Pure Religion is glad, 
not gloomy. It is Light without darkness 
or shadow. 



156 THE HEAVENLY LIFE 

Despondency, disappointment, grief: these 
are the reflex aspects of pleasurable excite- 
ment, self-seeking, and desire. Give up 
the latter, and the former will always dis- 
appear; there remains the perfect Bliss of 
Heaven. 

Abounding and unalloyed Happiness is 
man's true life; perfect Blessedness is his 
rightful portion; and when he loses his false 
life and finds the true he enters into the 
full possession of his Kingdom. The King- 
dom of Heaven is man's Home; it is 
here and now, it is in his own heart, and 
he is not left without Guides, if he wills 
to find it. All man's sorrows and suffering 
are the result of his own self-elected 
estrangement from the Divine Source, the 
All-Good, the Father, the Heart of Love. 
Let him return to his Home; his peace 
awaits him. 

The Heavenly-minded are without sorrow 
and suffering because they are without 
sin. What the worldly-minded call troubles 
they regard as pleasant tasks of Love and 
Wisdom. Troubles belong to hell; they 



HEAVEN IN THE HEART 157 

do not enter Heaven. This is so simple it 
should not appear strange. If you have a 
trouble it is in your own mind, and nowhere 
else; you make it, it is not made for you; 
it is not in your task; it is not in that out- 
ward thing. You are its creator, and it 
derives its life from you only. Look upon 
all your difficulties as lessons to be learned, 
as aids to spiritual growth, and lo! they are 
difficulties no longer. This is one of the 
Pathways up to Heaven. 

To transmute everything into Happiness 
and Joy, this is supremely the work and 
duty of the Heavenly-minded man. To 
reduce everything to wretchedness and de- 
privation is the process that the worldly- 
minded unconsciously pursue. To live in 
Love is to work in Joy. Love is the magic 
that transforms all things into power and 
beauty. It brings plenty out of poverty, 
power out of weakness, loveliness out of 
deformity, sweetness out of bitterness, light 
out of darkness, and produces all blissful 
conditions out of its own substantial but 
indefinable essence. 



158 THE HEAVENLY LIFE 

He who loves can never want. The 
universe belongs to Goodness, and it there- 
fore belongs to the good man. It can be 
possessed by all without stint or shrinking, 
for Goodness, and the abundance of Good- 
ness—material, mental, and spiritual abun- 
dance—is inexhaustible. Think lovingly, 
speak lovingly, act lovingly, and every need 
shall be supplied; you shall not walk in 
desert places, and no danger shall over- 
take you. 

Love sees with faultless vision, judges 
with true judgment, acts in wisdom. Look 
through the eyes of Love, and you shall 
see everywhere the Beautiful and the True; 
judge with the mind of Love, and you shall 
err not, shall wake no wail of sorrow; act 
in the spirit of Love, and you shall strike 
eternal harmonies upon the Harp of Life. 

Make no compromise with self. Cease 
not to strive until your whole being is 
swallowed up in Love. To love all and 
always: this is the Heaven of Heavens. 
"Let there be nothing within thee that is 
not very beautiful and very gentle, and then 



HEAVEN IN THE HEART 159 

will there be nothing without thee that is 
not beautiful and softened by the spell of 
thy presence. " All that you do, let it be 
done in calm wisdom and not from desire, 
impulse, or opinion; this is the Heavenly 
way of action. 

Purify your thought-world until no stain 
is left, and you shall ascend into Heaven 
while living in the body. You will then see 
the things of the outward world clothed in 
all beautiful forms. Having found the 
Divine Beauty within ourselves, it springs 
to life in every outward thing. To the 
beautiful soul the world is beautiful. 

Undeveloped souls are merely unoped 
flowers. The perfect Beauty lies concealed 
within, and will one day reveal itself to the 
full-orbed light of Heaven. Seeing men 
thus, we stand where evil is not, and where 
the eye beholds only good. Herein lies 
the peace and patience and beauty of Love: 
it sees no evil. He who loves thus becomes 
the protector of all men. Though in their 
ignorance they should hate him, he shields 
and loves them. 

E.K.-ll] 



160 THE HEAVENLY LIFE 

What gardener is so foolish as to condemn 
his flowers because they do not develop in 
a day ? Learn to love, and you shall see 
in all souls, even those called degraded, 
the Divine Beauty, and shall know that it 
will not fail to come forth. This is one of 
the Heavenly Visions; it is out of this that 
Gladness comes. 

Open the petals of your soul and let the 
glorious Light stream in. 

Every soul is a resolved harmony. It 
shall at last strike the Perfect Chord, and 
swell the joyful melodies of Heaven. 

Hell is the preparation for Heaven; 
out of the debris of its ruined hovels are 
built pleasant mansions wherein the per- 
fected soul may dwell. 

Night is only a fleeting shadow which 
the world casts, and sorrow but a transient 
shade cast by the self. Come out into the 
Sunlight. Know this, O reader! that you 
are divine. You are not cut off from the 
Divine except in your own unbelief. Rise 
up, O Son of God! and shake off the night- 
mare of sin that binds you; accept your 



HEAVEN IN THE HEART 161 

heritage: the Kingdom of Heaven! Drug 
your soul no longer with the poisons of 
false beliefs. You are not a worm of the 
dust unless you choose to make yourself 
one. You are a divine, immortal, God-born 
being, and this you may know if you will 
to seek and find. Cling no longer to your 
impure and grovelling thoughts, and you 
shall know that you are a radiant and 
celestial spirit, filled with all pure and 
lovable thoughts. Wretchedness and sin 
and sorrow are not your portion here unless 
you accept them as such; and if you do 
this, they shall be your portion hereafter, 
for these things are not apart from your 
soul-condition; they will go wherever you 
go; they are only within you. 

Heaven, not hell, is your portion here and 
always. It only requires you to take what 
belongs to you. You are the master, 
and you choose whom you will serve. You 
are the maker of your state, and your 
choice determines your condition. What 
you pray and ask for — with your mind and 
heart, not with your lips merely, this you 



162 THE HEAVENLY LIFE 

receive. You are served as you serve. 
You are conditioned as you condition. 
You garner in your own. 

Heaven is yours; you have but to enter 
in and take possession; and Heaven means 
Supreme Happiness, Perfect Blessedness; it 
leaves nothing to be desired, nothing to be 
grieved over. It is complete satisfaction 
now and in this world. It is within you; 
and if you do not know this, it is because 
you persist in turning the back of your soul 
upon it. Turn around and you shall behold 
it. 

Come and live in the sunshine of your 
being. Come out of the shadows and the 
dark places. You are framed for Happi- 
ness. You are a child of Heaven. Purity, 
Wisdom, Love, Plenty, Joy, and Peace: 
these are the eternal Realities of the King- 
dom, and they are yours, but you cannot 
possess them in sin; they have no part in 
the Realm of Darkness. They belong to 
"the Light which lighteth every man that 
cometh into the world," the Light of spot- 
less Love. They are the heritage of the 



\ 



HEAVEN IN THE HEART 163 

holy Christ-Child who shall come to birth 
in your soul when you are ready to divest 
yourself of all your impurities. They are 
your real self. — your Divine Self. 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Nov. 2004 

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